An increasing share of tourists in Bulgaria are choosing accommodation places offering high quality services. In 2017, the overnight stays in 4 and 5 star hotels were more than 3.7 million, which is 32% more than in 2014. With such growth are also the overnight stays for this period and the revenues from them in 2017 are over BGN 919 million - nearly 49% growth compared to 2014.

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelova said at the opening of the third international Hotel & Tourism investment forum, the tourism agency reported. She stressed that it is extremely important for the tourism administration to work in direct dialogue with industry organizations and major international tour operators, who are among the leading investors in the sector - such as Hyatt, Marriot, Review Pro, Avvio, Choice hotels, Louvre hotels, IDeaS a SAS Company, STR, etc., who participate in the forum.

Bulgaria is interesting not only with its nature and culture, but also as a place to do business, for which our legislation provides for a number of tax incentives and incentives for significant investments, Minister Angelkova said. She recalled the record industry results that are proof of sustainability. In 2017 Bulgaria is visited by nearly 8.9 million foreign tourists, which is more than its population and more than 7% growth compared to the record until 2016. We set a very good start in 2018 and we expect at least 5% growth of tourists compared to last year's records, she said.

Minister Angelko announced that beds in 4- and 5-star accommodation increased from 2014 to around 121,000 to about 150,000, which is about 24% growth. The luxury hotels in 2014 were 369 and in 2018 they were already 418. These are the places and beds that run out most quickly for bookings and are already booked in summer 2019. As a share in the total number of 4- and 5-star hotels, about 43% of the beds in the places with at least 10 beds in our country account for a steady increase, the minister added.

Nikolina Angelova gave concrete examples of Bulgaria becoming an increasingly recognizable destination.

"During the G20 tourism ministerial meeting in the Argentine capital, I had the honor of conducting a lot of talks where various opportunities for investment promotion were discussed. I welcome the interest of chains such as Marriot, Hyatt and others. for investments on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast", she said, recalling the government's policy to reduce administrative burdens.

In the field of tourism, with the amendments to the Law on Tourism, 19 types of documents, which until now had to be provided on paper, were dropped. A unit at the Ministry of Tourism has been set up, which focuses on measures to attract more investment together with the Ministry of Economy and its agencies.

In order to facilitate the interest of the entrepreneurs in tourism, our ministry has established in partnership with the municipalities a map of investment projects in tourism in Bulgaria. More than 30 objects were presented to foreign investors, international exhibitions and tourist forums, Minister Angelkova explained. The card is an open initiative and interest in it is high. The Ministry is already preparing a second part with an update and more concrete details of the investment intentions aimed at attracting entrepreneurs.