The international tourism of Bulgaria is already providing a positive turnout for the country’s current account registering an amount of EUR 1 M.

The number of foreign tourists has gone up by 5,09% for the period January-November 2005. The share of the European Union (EU) in Bulgaria’s international tourism is 54,85% for the eleven months of 2005, data from the Culture Ministry revealed.

A total of 4,585,875 foreign citizens have visited Bulgaria in January to November 2005.The number of the tourists has gone up by 5,09% as compared to the same period in 2004.

The number of tourists coming from the EU is rapidly going up as compared to the number of tourists from the other countries. The number of tourists from the EU countries marks a boom of 6,15% - some 5,94% is the increase in the number of tourists coming from the old EU members and 7,23% from the new EU members.

The European market remains a main market generating tourists for Bulgaria, the Culture Ministry says in its report. The data shows that despite the fluctuating development and the problems connected mainly with the effects of the unlimited construction in the Black Sea resorts and the partially damaged by the last nature disasters infrastructure Bulgaria’s tourism industry is developing at a high speed.

A decrease in the demand of the Bulgarian tourism product has been registered in August and September. Bulgaria records considerable increase in its market positions in the UK, Russia, Ukraine, the Scandinavian countries, Turkey, Central Europe, the US and other countries.

Should the positive tendency continue in December 2005 the year might be concluded with an increase of 5 to 6% in the number of foreign tourists and 8 to 9% in the tourism revenues, the Culture Ministry also points out.