Sofia Attracts Over 500,000 Tourists So Far in 2016

Sofia has attracted over half a million tourists since the beginning of 2016, stated on Tuesday Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova at the first meeting of the mayors of capitals in Central and Eastern Europe and China "16+1".

The forum will be attended by the mayor of Belgrade - Sinisa Mali, of Sarajevo - Ivo Komsic, of Skopie - Koce Trajanovski, of Tallinn - Taavi Aas and the chairman of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress - Du Deyin.

According to Angelkova, 2016 is expected to be a record year for Bulgarian tourism. Over 4.5 million tourists have visited the country since the beginning of the year.

In order for tourists to stay longer, we have developed, together with Sofia Municipality, eight cultural-historical routes with attached interactive maps. These will be published on the website of the ministry, added Angelkova.

Tourism marked 60% growth over the last 6 years, commented Sofia Mayor Fandakova. According to her, it is important for mayors to provide better living conditions and a healthy environment via green policies for the management of the cities.