OREANDA-NEWS. August 07, 2014. This was stated by the Deputy Minister of economy of Bulgaria for tourism Branimir Botev, cited by Bulgarian media, noting that due to the crisis in Ukraine has increased the number of tourists in Bulgaria from Moldova, Belarus and Hungary.

According to him, about 4.5% increase in the number of tourists was registered from Greece, Russia, and Great Britain. The number of tourists from Germany increased by 9% and from Turkey – by almost 14%. In the first half of 2014 resorts of Bulgaria received organized groups from 50 countries. Branimir Botev reported about two-digit growth in the number of tourists from such countries as the USA, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and the Baltic countries.

After opening of airlines Varna-Istanbul increased a number of tourists from Iran, UAE and China. At the same time, this year it expected 8% decrease up to 91 thousand in the number of tourists from the Ukraine. In general, from January to June this year Bulgaria was visited by 2 million 634 thousand 887 foreign tourists, not counting the transit and holidaymakers in private flats, which is by 5.7% more than at the same period of the last year.