Bulgaria and Japan will organize a bilateral business forum to promote the mutual tourist flow, which will be attended by representatives of the government administration and businesses from both countries. Plans are to hold it during the 2017 Rose Festival. This was agreed between the Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Bulgaria, Nikolina Angelkova, and Hisayuki Fujii, Deputy Minister of Japan’s Ministry of Earth, Infrastructure, and Tourism.

Bulgaria is popular among Japanese tourists mainly with the rose and yoghurt and this must be utilized to present other forms of tourism as well, Hisayuki Fujii pointed out. According to Minister Angelkova, organizing a business event during the Rose Festival will be an opportunity to both showcase this unique event to more Japanese tour operators, and to present our country’s cultural-historical heritage. „Concentrated in the Rose Valley are some of the most symbolic and impressive sites of the Thracian culture, which should also be displayed to Japanese tourists“, she added. Deputy Minister Fujii supported the initiative and committed to assist in its implementation.

The two shared the opinion that the Bulgarian tourism information centre, which was unveiled in Tokyo days ago, is an important step to activate the mutual flow of tourists. Our country is traditionally presented also at the biggest Japanese tourism exposition - Expo JATA, which makes it well known on their tourism market. The Bulgarian Kaloyan Mahlyanov-Kotooshu has also contributed a lot for the promotion of Bulgaria in the country of the rising sun, it was made clear during the meeting.

Japan is in the top 50 generating markets for Bulgarian tourism. In 2015, our country was visited by a total of 12 362 Japanese nationals. During the period January-August 2016 we welcomed 9 263 Japanese tourists, which is a 16.5 % growth compared to the same period of 2015.