Sofia, November 1 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Tourism Ministry is participating in the 41st edition of the international travel exhibition World Travel Market in London, which this year is held in a hybrid format: as an in-person event between November 1 and 3, 2021, and onlne between November 8 and 9, the Ministry said.

A total of eight exhibitors were presented at the Bulgarian national stand, together with the Ministry, inclining tour operators and two municipalities - Sofia Municipality and Varna Municipality. The United Kingdom is one of the priority markets for this country, and Bulgaria's participation is in line with the 2021 National Tourism Advertising Programme. A Ministry of Tourism team, led by Deputy Minister Irena Georgieva, took part in the exhibition. On Monday Georgieva and her team had working meetings with some of the leading tour operators on the UK market.

World Travel Market (WTM) is the largest exchange for professionals in the tourism industry and the second largest tourism exhibition in the world after ITB - Berlin.

Bulgaria is known among the citizens of Great Britain as a destination offering mainly seaside vacations and ski vacations, recalled the Ministry. In 2021, there was a confirmed trend among British tourists vacationing outside their country to choose a well-known destination, with 53 per cent of them believing that testing for COVID-19 when traveling abroad is very important for their safety. Therefore, according to the Ministry, Bulgaria has great potential to increase the number of trips from the UK for cultural tours, spas and wellness, combined sea and mountain tours and other specialized forms of tourism such as eco and rural tourism, adventure, golf, business and congress tourism, festival tourism and others, which will all be presented at the Bulgarian stand during the tourist exhibition. DD/DT