An increase of at least 10% in the number of tourists visiting the Plovdiv municipality is expected next year, when the city will be European Capital of Culture, Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said to reporters as she opened a tourism forum. According to Angelkova, there is strong interest from the US, Asia, neighbour countries such as Greece, Turkey, Romania and Macedonia, as well as Germany and the UK. She said that overnight stays rose 4% to 850,000 in the first nine months of 2018, Focus Radio has reported.