Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Increase in tourism in Bulgaria expected, the upsurge is in urban cultural tourism

Rumen Draganov
Photo: BTA

We expect more than 13 million tourists to come to Bulgaria in 2024, and an increase of 5-7%, said the director of the Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism Rumen Draganov in an interview with Radio Burgas, BNR.

The expert believes there will be a stable tourist season in Bulgaria and a return to pre-2019 and pre-pandemic levels or even higher. But there is a negative element too, and it is connected with seaside tourism. “The upsurge is of cultural tourism in cities, not of seaside tourism. Many hotels there do not have good websites, or feedback. They just sit around and wait for the tourists to come,” Rumen Draganov says.

Sunny Beach is once again a favourite this year with British tourists looking for a low-cost holiday – the new rankings by Post Office Travel Money and TUI for cheapest summer vacation destinations in Europe once again put Sunny Beach top of the list.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Official start given to summer tourist season 2025

The summer season for 2025 has officially begun some “20 kilometres from Burgas”, as a popular song goes – in Pomorie.  “Pomorie is well established on the tourist map of Bulgaria, and offers an excellent combination of sea, history, culture, balneo..

published on 5/31/25 7:30 AM

Happiness with a taste of wine amidst the Ritlite cliffs in the Iskar Gorge

Located against the backdrop of the sheer cliffs of the Iskar Gorge, the village of Lyutibrod has evolved into an emblem of wine tourism in the country. Known most of all for a natural rock phenomenon called Ritlite, which is a marker for where the..

published on 5/30/25 10:46 AM
The Wheel of Life in the Church of the Nativity, Arbanassi

Arbanassi and its amazing church with the Wheel of Life

The Church of the Nativity is one of the most beautiful churches in Arbanassi, a village just 5 kms. from Veliko Tarnovo. It is one of the few preserved churches from the end of the 16 th and the beginning of the 17 th century in Bulgaria. It..

published on 5/28/25 1:59 PM