The tourism strategy is finalised and is now being discussed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs, the head of the State Tourism Agency Anelia Kroushkova told a news conference, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.
The strategy needs to get the nod from all ministries, then put to a vote from the Government. The process is expected to take several months.
The blueprint forecasts a revenue increase of 20 per cent in each of the years through 2013. Tourism industry players believe this growth rate is unrealistic.
Final touches to the strategy concerned the way and opportunities to absorb EU funds through the environment ministry, Kroushkova said. The financial portion of the strategy remained unchanged, the official said. Namely, foreign tourism proceeds are estimated to reach six billion euro in 2013 in what would be a substantial increase from 2.4 billion euro last year.
The optimistic forecast is again digressing from the outlook of Bulgaria's tour operators. A number of strong tourism markets for Bulgaria are said to perform on a par with last year, if not worse, or report minimal growth. Only the Russian market is expected to report double-digit growth, which, however, would be insufficient to compensate for the outflow from other countries.
Kroushkova insisted that the financial targets were realistic as she expected hoteliers to finally start reporting their true revenues.
