Almost no Russian Tourists in Bulgaria this year - they are Selling their Properties

"About 50,000 Russian citizens are expected to come to Bulgaria this year with flights via Istanbul, Dubai and Belgrade, some of them with properties in Bulgaria", predicts Assoc. Prof. Rumen Draganov, a longtime expert in the field of tourism and a teacher. "However, this is the minimum they reached in the pandemic 2020 - for comparison in previous years they were 550,000, in the years of socialism they exceeded one million", Draganov said.

Although he does not have exact data, he estimated that these properties owned by Russians in Bulgaria are more than 200,000 - not only by the sea but also inland, and some of them are owned by families in mixed marriages.

"It is very good for some Russians to have property here in this situation because Bulgaria is a safe destination. There are also those who do not agree with what is happening in Russia and want to distance themselves," he said.

"Is the Russian tourist market lost in our country? At this moment - yes", Draganov, who is the director of the Institute for Analysis and Evaluation in Tourism, is categorical. According to him, however, the market will certainly recover when the international situation allows it.

"There are Russian citizens who sell their homes but the reasons are mainly economic, in no case based on the attitude of Bulgarians towards Russians, on the contrary, they feel much more stable here and have a much greater desire to rest here instead of to go to Turkey, for example", according to the observations of Hristo Nikolov, Chairman of the board of the association "With Russia for Faith, Unity and Culture - Nessebar", which has more than 550 members, more than half of whom are Russians. The association has existed since 2016,...