Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister gloomy about lack of tourists as summer season starts

Bulgaria’s summer resorts are ready to receive tourists but there are “none”, according to Tourism Minister Ilin Dimitrov.

Dimitrov, speaking to Bulgarian National Television on June 14, cited Eurostat data saying that Bulgaria was in last place in the European Union in terms of growth in foreign tourists in January – April 2026.

He said that Bulgaria was experiencing a serious decline in foreign tourist arrivals.

As is customary for members of Prime Minister Roumen Radev’s government, which took office on May 8, Dimitrov sought to pin the blame on problems in the management of the sector over the past year, including inefficient spending and a lack of strategic focus on key markets.

“Currently, our resorts are ready, they are clean, tidy, expecting tourists, and there are no tourists,” Dimitrov said.

“And because we have to work with numbers and data, a few days ago the result literally came out,” he said.

“Eurostat came out with statistics on where Bulgaria is from the period January – April 2026 compared to January – April 2025. We are in last place in the European Union. And not only in last place.

“With the European Union’s growth of 4.5 per cent, it turns out that Bulgaria is minus 4.3 per cent. This speaks of a large outflow of bookings and tourists from Bulgaria in general.”

Dimitrov described the situation as worrying and said that the data were not his personal assessments, but official statistics.

He said that the main outflow was from the German and Romanian markets, which are among the most important for Bulgarian tourism.

“It is very worrying and realistic at the moment this is the result of the work of the Ministry of Tourism and related sectors. The main outflow is in two markets – the German and the Romanian,” Dimitrov said.

“On the German market, there are breakdowns in relations between several major players, which means that instead of the Ministry of Tourism intervening, it has a different focus,” he said.

(Archive photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)