May 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's tourism ministry said on Thursday that it expects an annual rise of 5% in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country this summer.
In the summer of 2017, 5.3 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria, the ministry said in a statement.
"We will rely on visitors mainly from Germany, Romania, Turkey, Russia, the UK, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary," tourism minister Nikolina Angelkova said in the statement.
According to Angelkova, Bulgaria's winter season 2017/2018 was exceptionally successful, as the country welcomed the highest number of foreign tourists since it joined the European Union in 2007.
In the period December 2017-March 2018, foreign tourists arrivals reached 1.6 million, up by 12% compared to the same period a year earlier.