A total of 11 641 Romanians crossed the border into Bulgaria on December 28 and 29 to celebrate New Year's Eve in this country, according to Bulgarian border authority data.

This, along with figures from the two summer seasons past, shows a significant increasing trend in Romanians coming to Bulgaria as tourists.

There are several reasons behind the trend.

The first is that resort cities and towns on northern Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, such as Shabla, Kavarna, Balchik and Varna are no more than an hour away from the border.

The second is the development of Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts such as Zlatni Piasatsi (Golden Sands), St Konstantin and Elena, Slanchev Den (Sunny Day) and Albena. The past five years have seen hundreds of newly built luxury hotels that, despite the noise and the crowds, offer plenty of opportunities to tourists.

The picture in Romania and at on Black Sea coast is slightly different. The country, like Bulgaria, has several summer resorts but the main difference is that Romania started its privatisations at seaside resorts years later than Bulgaria. This has given Bulgaria an advantage in new tourist opportunities.

Romania's seaside resorts Mamaia, Eforie, Neptun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mangalia offer nice sand beaches and open spaces but the accommodation is two decades out of date.

In an article about Romanians' New Years Eve tourism, Romanian newspaper Gardianul said that Romanians had chosen Bulgaria over Romania because of the neighbouring country's lower prices and better conditions.

"In the communist-style hotels in Prahova valley (Romania), an all inclusive New Year's package costs between 1035 euro and 1479 euro while a five star Bulgarian hotel offers the same package at the price of no more than 500 euro," Gardianul said.

The newspaper said that during the holidays, no more than 30 per cent of Romanian hotels were open, while with the exception of Albena, Bulgarian resorts were full to the brim with holidaymakers.

"The conditions in Bulgaria are much better than in Romania," Romanian Maria David told Gardianul. "The accommodation, food and everything else cannot be compared to Romania. We spent five days in a five star hotel in Zlatni Piasatsi and it cost us only 270 euro a person. This included the food and the News Years Eve dinner. In my opinion, close to 98 per cent of the tourists in the resort were Romanians," Davis said.