Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.3
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Bulgaria welcomes intentions to open a charter line from Baku to one of its sea resorts, Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“The Azerbaijani side has already shown interest in exploring the possibilities of establishing a charter line from Baku to one of our sea resorts, and we welcome these intentions,” said the minister.
She noted that direct flights between Sofia and Baku, launched in January this year, will definitely have a positive impact on the mutual tourist flow.
Both Bulgaria and Azerbaijan offer very good and varied opportunities for tourism that have not yet unleashed the potential of bilateral contacts, said Angelkova, adding that tourists from medium and more distant destinations are mainly traveling by air.
“The new airline connection offers more chances to understand our peoples, their lifestyle and culture, but also for more intense contacts between businesses, more dynamic economic relations, including in tourism. I am convinced that thus we will deepen our joint initiatives for the development of cultural, historical, balneo- and SPA, wellness, festival, eco-, gourmet, wine and many other types of tourism that are sought by consumers in both countries,” said the minister.
She also spoke about the possibility of opening direct flights between Baku and other Bulgarian cities.
“In our country the air traffic passes through 4 major airports - Sofia, Varna, Bourgas and Plovdiv. Traditionally, the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts attract the greatest number of foreign guests in the country, as a prerequisite for this is the modernization and serious investments made at our two major airports Varna and Bourgas. As an administration, we maintain an active dialogue with large and low-cost airline companies. Upon the performance of a precise analysis of many factors in the future, airlines could be launched to other Bulgarian cities,” noted Angelkova. “The connection with the two Black Sea airports will definitely be a stimulating factor for strengthening the various types of mass tourism (sea and winter) and specialized tourism. Besides, on our Black Sea coast are located some of our best golf courses built according to international standards.”
Regarding the possibilities of visa facilitation between the two countries, the minister said that Bulgaria does not impose unilateral visa regulations on other countries, but rather follows EU policy in this respect.
“I believe that our countries must actively develop their cooperation both in tourism and in many other structurally determinant sectors of the economy. In order to increase the number of visas issued and to encourage tourist visits, we are working on introducing new technologies to help speed up processing of travel requests. We also very much appreciate the efforts of Azerbaijan to facilitate the issuance of visas to Bulgarian citizens electronically, which will undoubtedly increase the influx of tourists,” she added.
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