AIR carriers adding flights to certain Bulgarian destinations have confirmed in the past week the rising interest towards Bulgaria as a European tourist haven.

In response to Bulgaria’s rising popularity among UK tourists, British Airways said on February 6 it would start flying from London’s Gatwick airport to Varna, on the Black Sea, twice a week from March 29. Return fares will start from 200 euro, excluding airport charges.

Two more weekly flights will be added from June 6.

Earlier, Wizz Air, the first low-cost airline to enter the Bulgarian market, said it would launch direct flights from the country’s capital Sofia and the Black Sea city of Bourgas to London.

Wizz Air will start flying four times a week from Sofia to London Luton Airport as of May.

The air carrier will also fly three times a week from Bourgas to London in the summer, from June 15 to September 18, when a large number of foreign tourists visit Bulgaria’s Black Sea resorts.

Wizz Air entered the Bulgarian market last year. Now it operates direct flights between Sofia and Budapest and also offers connection flights via the Hungarian capital to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Rome and Malmo in southern Sweden.

Proof that air carriers’ interest towards Bulgaria was not in vain came on February 5, when the Bulgarian Airlines Association (BAA) said it expected a two-digit rise in passenger traffic through the country’s three main airports in 2006 due to growth of the domestic tourism sector and the prospects for the country’s European Union entry next year.

The number of passengers travelling on scheduled and charter international flights to the southeast European country rose last year by 16.4 per cent to 4.853 million.

“Growth in passenger numbers will surely continue in 2006 by at least the pace from last year, driven mainly by two factors: the growing offer of the tourism sector and Bulgaria’s forthcoming accession to the EU, hopefully next year,” BAA’s secretary general, Yovko Yotzev, told a meeting on February 5 attended by Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev.

He added that a stable trend of rising passenger numbers to EU-acceding states has been seen in the course of the previous waves of the enlargement of the Union.
Tourism contributes about 12 per cent of Bulgaria’s gross domestic product.

Bulgarian air carriers transported two million passengers on international flights in 2005, 16.2 per cent up from 2004. Foreign companies experienced a 10-11 per cent growth in air passenger flow to and from Bulgaria, data shows.

Mutafchiev also spoke during the meeting of tourism-driven interest about the concession of some railway stations in Bulgaria. According to him, companies from Spain and Italy have already approached the state administration enquiring on the possible options. The stations in Sofia and the second largest city of Plovdiv might be offered to potential bidders, Mutafchiev said.

And another initiative attempting to boost all forms of tourism traffic into Bulgaria was reported by local newspapers on February 2. A national tourism board will be created in Bulgaria to represent the common interests of non-government organisations and large investors in the tourism industry in their partnership with state institutions, said Poli Karastoyanova, executive director of the Bulgarian Convention and Visitors Bureau (BCVB).