Dobrev concedes: There is an outflow of Israeli tourists

There has been an outflow of Israeli tourists following the bus bombing at the Sarafovo Airport near Burgas, Delian Dobrev, Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, told TV7 on Tuesday.

More than 20 charter flights from Israel were cancelled in the first few days after the terrorist attack. Since then the total has grown to over 100 but the bright side is that there are hardly any cancelled flights of late and bookings for the winter holiday season are already starting to come in. Dobrev is confident that the Israeli Tourism Minister's visit to Bulgaria and his own trip to Israel, along with an advertising campaign currently running in four publications there, are gradually calming the market and should bring back growth. "In the aftermath of the terrorist attack, our initial forecast for an at least 10% increase in the number of Israeli tourists has changed, with hopes at this point more in the line of avoiding a drop. We don't expect miracles but I think we'll manage to repeat last year's result of 138,000," Dobrev said. There is a slight drop of around 1% in the number of visitors from EU states. Dobrev attributed this to the fact that many European countries are sliding back into recession. The number of tourists from Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus has increased markedly, averaging more than 15% growth.

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