Bulgaria considers Russia exclusively important counterpart in tourism — minister

Bulgaria considers Russia an exclusively important and strategic counterpart in tourism, Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said in an interview with TASS on Friday. "Our countries now continue an extremely honest dialogue, which favors expanding and deepening of relations in the tourism sector," the minister said. "Results of our cooperation are evident already. Russia for me is an exclusively important, strategic counterpart in the sphere of tourism." The minister said in late February Moscow will host a roundtable on development of tourism between Bulgaria and Russia, where the key topic would be restoration of the tourism flow during summer of the current year. "We shall try to do everything possible to return Russian tourists to Bulgaria, to our Black Sea resorts," she said. "We could also offer different variants of cultural, historical, religious and other kinds of tourism." "Bulgaria has undertaken all steps to offer to the Russians the best possible conditions for holidays," she said adding the issue of security being among the most important aspects. "Intelligence services of our countries are working closely to provide maximum security and comfort during the holidays." The tourism minister said all the children under the age of 16, who will be interested in taking part in festivals in Bulgaria, will be granted free visas. "Practically all children will be able to use this right; and they have only to notify about their intentions as they file in the documents," she said adding the list of all the events is available at the Bulgarian embassy and at Bulgarian consular offices. The minister said the work on easier visa formalities for the Russians still continues, and the country will be able to report results at the forum in Moscow.