“Tourism is among the most important fields for co-operation between Bulgaria and Russia”, said the vice-chairman of DAT Stanislav Novakov at the opening of the expo “Bulgaria today” in Moscow.

Novakov expressed his confidence that the number of Russian tourists coming to Bulgaria won’t decrease in 2009, despite the economic crisis. In 2008, Bulgaria was visited by nearly 300 thousand Russians. Russia ranks fifth among the countries with the most tourists going to Bulgaria, after Romania, Greece, Germany and the UK.

The National agency for tourism and the Bulgarian union of balneology and spa tourism present the possibilities for tourism at the expo. Aside from tourism, Bulgaria and Russia have tight relations in the fields of estate business, pharmacy, energetics, textile industry. During the opening of the expo, the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin noted the insufficient level of Bulgarian investments in Russia.