Updated: 2006-05-24

  Foreign Tourists Prefer Bulgaria's Capital in the Wintertime

  Novinite.com

  Business

  Bulgaria's capital Sofia and the winter resorts were among the most preferred destinations for the foreign tourists in the wintertime, it appeared Tuesday.

  For the first three months of the year Sofia attracted the attention of the greatest part of the foreigners that came to Bulgaria, data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) showed. Some 73,219 foreigners were accommodated as Sofia hotels that registered revenues of over BGN 16 M for the local tourism.

  Sofia municipality is occupying the second place in the number of foreigners accommodated in its hotels. NSI explains these figures with the fact that two of the countries best winter resorts - Bansko and Borovets are in that area. In January-March some 35,601 foreigners were accommodated in the municipality and it recorded revenues of almost BGN 4,2 M.

  The other two major resorts Pamporovo and Chepelare are part of the Smolyan region and therefore it is ranked third in the number of foreigners accommodated in the winter. The number of the foreigners that visited the region is 18,915 and the revenues registered are BGN 6 M.

  The southern region of Blagoevgrad, which turned into a university centre, is occupying the fourth place in the ranking. In the first months of 2006 some 21,783 foreigners were accommodated in Blagoevgrad area.

  The NSI figures also showed that in the first three months of the year some 602,948 tourists were accommodated in the Bulgarian hotels, some 192,906 of them were foreigners.

  Bulgaria boasts 1216 hotels with 79,725 beds. Black Sea capital Varna leads the ranking in hotels beds number with 11,625 beds located in 106 hotels. In Smolyan municipality, however, there are 169 hotels with 7,854 beds.

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