As a city with convenient infrastructure and facilities at a good European level, Sofia has all the prerequisites to become a desirable destination for congress and festival tourism. This was announced by the CEO of Galaxy Investment Group Konstantin Boyadzhiev at the 6th Annual Meeting of the National Board of Tourism (NBT) held under the motto "2019 - Year of Internal Tourism, Investment and Innovation", which took place in Hilton Sofia. More than 150 leaders from the tourism industry, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of the legislative, executive and local authorities took part in the initiative.
According to the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova, the modernization of the hotels and the introduction of new hotel brands is important for the city. She pointed out that for the period 2008-2018 the number of overnight stays in the capital increased by 36% and the number of foreign tourists jumped by 82%.
"An additional advantage for the city is the presence of prestigious four and five-star hotels that provide excellent opportunities for events of any format," said Konstantin Boyadzhiev.
"Galaxy Investment Group has many years of experience in attracting global international brands, including the hotels InterContinental Sofia and Hilton Sofia, which are preferred by a large number of foreign guests, diplomats and representatives of high-level delegations from all over the world. International brands of such a rank have a positive impact on Sofia's image as a tourist brand, as they are its advertisement. They attract their international loyal customers here and show and promote both Sofia as a destination and Bulgaria," he added.
"It is extremely important for the country's reputation the presence of international world brands such as InterContinental and Hilton. The presence of such high-end hotels is of particular importance for tourism," said the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova.
She reported more than 8.4 billion BGN in revenues in 2018, up with 6% over a year earlier. For the last three years - since 2015, the growth of the revenues from international tourism is 34%. Last year our country was visited by over 9 million foreign tourists. The advertising budget for tourism should be 1% of the revenues that the sector generates annually in the economy of the country, said Polina Karastoyanova, Executive Director of NBT. According to her, until now the investments have been significantly smaller and this reflects on the competitiveness of our country.