Russian tourist flow to Bulgaria falls over three years

According to the statistics of the Border Service of the Russian Federation, for the nine months of 2019, 309,1 thousand trips were made from Russia to Bulgaria with the purpose of tourism, which is 12% less than the same time a year earlier. The country is on the twelfth position in the ranking of the most popular resorts among Russian, although in 2016 Bulgaria was on the fifth line. Tour operators note the reasons that restrain the development of this destination. 
According to Dimitr Tsonev, the CEO of Solvex tour operator, the fall is not catastrophic, however, there is a reason to think over this trend. This season several negative factors acted at once. Due to the high euro exchange rate in winter and spring, early booking of Bulgaria went worse than expected. Moreover, the Turkish lira, on the contrary, was falling, which also worked against Bulgaria. June, due to bad weather in Bulgaria, sold poorly, operators reduced transportation volumes. 
According to the Executive Director of Intourist Sergey Tolchin, this year all tour operators approached to the volumes of transportation to Bulgaria very carefully. Some operators have reduced departures to one airport to minimize possible losses. 
The concern of Russian tour operators is confirmed by statistics: the flow of Russians to Bulgaria has been declining for the third year. According to the Border Service of the Russian Federation, if for the entire 2016 almost 482 thousand tourist trips from Russia were made to this country, then in 2017 - 422 thousand and in 2018 - 360 thousand.