The French website etsim.com stated that this year, Bulgaria will turn the national tourism to the sphere of ecotourism and rural tourism.

The Bulgarian slogan for 2009 will be: “Nature bids you welcome”. The country possesses an enormous potential to develop these two segments of the tourism market, because the protected zones of untouched wilderness and biological variety take up about 34% of the Bulgarian territory.

At the moment, 90% of the tourism in Bulgaria is concentrated in balneotherapy sanatoriums, ski and spa resorts, and the two largest cities of the country where business and cultural tourism are well developed.

The Bulgarian national agency for tourism hopes that bringing the rural tourism and ecotourism to the forefront will allow the country to diversify their tourism offers and redefine it’s image.