Dissertation: Factors Making Bulgaria Attractive to British Tourists

This dissertation literature review investigates the factors that attract British tourists to Bulgaria, focusing on cultural heritage and market dynamics. The review explores the historical development of Bulgarian tourism, including the impact of communist rule and the transition to a market econom...Read More

Running head: DISSERTATION
Literature Review:
Bulgaria is one of the largest countries by size in Southeast Europe and one of the
oldest nations in the European continent. It was found in 7th century and it hosted numerous
large and prominent civilizations in the history (Todorova 2018). The rich cultural heritage of
Bulgaria makes it an attractive tourist destination every year. In addition to its culture, the other
aspects that enhances the attraction of Bulgaria amongst its tourist has been its affordable and
higher-quality medical care facilities, universities and high quality of accommodation and
conference facilities for businesses. This research study commences with a discussion on what
the academic researchers think about this tourism destination.
Ivanov (2017), tried to provide an insight into the well-established aspect of mass
tourism in Bulgaria. He further went onto say that its emergence dated back to 1926 when
organized tourist visited Varna. During communist period marked between 1944 and 1989,
tourism had been recognized by communist party as a crucial economic sector and key source
of the foreign exchange. During the time huge tourist resort got constructed on the coast of
Black Sea and the mountains that predominantly served the international tourist. In the course,
Bulgaria tried to promote different tourism products thereby initiating mass tourism. Tourism was
found to regain momentum post 2000 and by the year 2014 the country witnessed a huge scale
official that enabled it in categorizing over three thousand accommodation establishments. In
the year 2014, the source of tourist market for tourism industry in Bulgaria has been dominated
by Russia and Greece followed by Romania, United Kingdom and Poland.
On the other hand, Dyankov, Krastev and Yancheva (2018) evaluated brand identity of
Bulgaria as a major factor for attracting tourist to the destination. They tried to explore the
present brand identity of Bulgaria based on multidimensional aspects. According to them, the
characteristics of brand identity reflects a compound influence on soft power of destination,
destination image as well as the brand image. Therefore, identification of brand identity is
crucial for positioning Bulgaria in the world market for tourism.
On the other hand, Ivanova (2018), tried to analyze the tourist visit in Bulgaria based on
the carrying capacity. The idea of carrying capacity represents the concept of sustainable
development in tourism. He along with other authors defined the concept by mentioning that
sustainable development in tourism lies in the philosophy of development and management for

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resource planning, better social, cultural and economic development, environment protection,
improvement in welfare of the local communities and providing higher levels of satisfaction
amongst consumer in the long term. In spite of the straightforwardness and clarity of the
concept, its implementation is mostly hindered by the problems and difficulties stemming from
holistic nature of sustainability and spatial and temporal dimensions. Tourism refers to part of
global culture and economy whose decisions remains focused primarily on the tourist
destinations whose visible process and impacts has been assumed to be the integral parts. In
this regard, carrying capacity represents the desire of transforming the general decisions into
location specific and time-based local solutions. According to him, carrying capacity has been
considered as the fundamental aspect of the tourism sustainability that might be used as
framework for evaluating the impact on specific tourism destinations like Bulgaria for preventing
it from the adverse influence of tourism and maintaining viability of the destination for the long
run. Basically, the carrying capacity of a particular destination represents the extent to which it
can be used for the purpose of tourism without any adverse effects. World Tourism Organization
(WTO), defined the aspect of tourism carrying capacity as, “the maximum number of people that
may visit a tourism destination at the same time, without causing destruction of the physical,
economic and sociocultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of the
visitors’ satisfaction”.
An Insight to the History of Bulgaria
Over the years, number of British travelers to Bulgaria has increased, although by total
number of visitor arrival, UK holds the 10th position, while Romania holds the first position
(Nsi.bg 2020). This research study explores the factors that could make Bulgaria more attractive
tourist destination for the British tourists. Numerous factors contribute in the growth of tourism
and those aspects, like, cultural heritage, economic condition, quality of tourism product and
services, infrastructure and natural tourist destinations and their preservation initiatives have
been investigated to understand their impact on the number of British tourist arrival in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria’s tourism was initiated by the end of 19th century with establishment of
Bulgaria’s Hiker’s Society in the year 1895 and building of the country’s first mountain lodges.
During the initial years of 20th century there were establishment of basic sanatoria and
recreational facilities for providing spa and balneotherapy procedures for the middle-class
workers (Ivanov and Dimitrova 2014). This trend was followed after 1944 when socialism had
been adopted as the key political ideology. The adoption of the Soviet model allowed tourism to
be managed and developed by the Balkantourist, the organization of the state tourist and the

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key provider of the subsidized holiday which was found in the year 1948. The first development
and planning of the mass facilities of tourist began during the latter part of 1950s and the early
part of 1960s (Stankova and Vassenska 2015). The strategy of the government relied on the
tourism as the key source of the foreign exchange. In this context, the first constructed resorts
have been Druzhba and Golden Sands which later came to be known as Helena and
Constantine respectively. Resorts were also constructed at Chaika and Sunny Beach on Black
Sea Cost and Borovets and Pamporovo in mountain areas (Holleran 2017). The recreational
villages that were created were designed for catering to domestic visitors also served as a low
budget destination for not only the Western Europeans but the tourist belonging to the other
countries of the Eastern Bloc thereby fulfilling need for the hard currency. This led to a dramatic
change in the tourism sector after fall of the communism in the year 1989 (Stanchev, Stancheva
and Young 2015). The transition from the state to the market economy resulted in financial
constraints and economic issues that led to massive decline in the funded holidays of the state.
The early 1990s witnessed the beginning of transition from centralized planning to a
market economy. The uncertainty and chaos created during period resulted in significant fall in
the total number of tourist arrival. During the 1998, the total number of leisure tourist on an
international scale reduced to 1.974 million from 2.161 million in the 1990s (Tribe 2015). In the
positive front, private investment made an entry into the tourism industry which led to the
establishment of small restaurant, hotels and the tour operators. The latter half of 1990s
remained characterized by the privatization of the tourist companies owned by the government
and the foreign investors within the sector followed by the huge domestic investment during first
the first half of the 21st century (Bethmann 2013). Thus, presently over 99 percent of this
industry seems to be run by the private companies. However, the development brought along
with its own problems. It led to over construction in seaside and the ski resorts which had been
accompanied by missing or limited infrastructure. Transportation had been issuing to the
development of this destination. Only three airports served the day to day international flights.
The highway ring being still under construction hindered the transportation of automobiles.
The bulk of leisure tourist came from countries of European Union that comprised of a
share of 79.17 percent (Cosgrove and Jackson 2015). The key markets for leisure tourist had
been Romania and Greece that accounted for 19.60 percent and 16 percent respectively.
Germany however contributed to about 11 percent of leisure tourist while UK contributed to a
smaller percentage of 9.44 percent. Tourist primarily came to Bulgaria for the purpose of

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vacation. The main tourist attractions had been the beaches, mountains areas and resorts and
the balneology and spa.
Trends that Make Bulgaria an Attractive Destination for British Tourists
The key trends of the tourism industry in Bulgaria has been the emergence of the
alternative types of tourism and promotion of country to the newer markets (Milev et al. 2014).
Alternative tourism can be referred to as the tourism form that is meant to remain consistent
with the social, natural and community values and that which allows both the guests and the
host to enjoy the positive and the worthwhile interaction along with shared experience. This
however emerged as the new tourism trend in past few years particularly for demonstrating
diversity of the tourism resources. Better weather conditions, lower travel cost and closer
proximity to the Western Europe has been the key reason for the development of a new form of
tourism catered around special interest (Boycheva 2017). There has been redevelopment of
Spa tourism that replaced old sanatoria with newer luxury hotels. The town of Sandanski,
Velingrad, Pomorie and Hisarya has been considered popular destinations for both the British
and the domestic tourist due to the offerings of various therapies and procedures. Rural tourism
has been considered another sector of development that combined the traditions and history of
the Bulgarian cuisine and folklore. British Tourists have mostly found accommodations in the
houses built around 19th century which provide them with the opportunity of spending time with
the host and thereby helping them in various household duties that varied from picking of
berries and herbs to milking the cow to preparing yogurt and making of pottery. Rural tourism
has gained popularity in Rhodopes area and is combined with the visits to the wine cellars.
Communist heritage tourism has been a popular phenomenon that included visit to the socialist
monument houses of the communist leader and Museum meant for Socialist Art located in
Sofia. Another vital trend has been the constant promotion of Bulgaria to the British tourist as a
year-round destination. The trend lies in the emergence of the new strategy of marketing in past
couple of years that emphasized on aspects of diversity as the tourism product. Bulgaria made
an appearance in various travel shows and exhibitions which not only promoted the cultural,
architectural and the religious heritage along with the spa and the wine facilities. Irrespective of
the efforts, Bulgaria has been found to be a favorite destination amongst the young travelers
who primarily look out for cheaper or inexpensive accommodation.
Climate Changes in Bulgaria

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As far as the climate is concerned, Bulgaria has been found to comprise of 31 percent of
lowlands, 41 percent of hills, 25 percent of highlands and close to 3 percent mountains. The
country has been split between northern and the southern Bulgaria by Balkan Mountains. The
climate is continental towards Mediterranean in South as well as north (Raev, Alexandrov and
Tinchev 2015). The annual precipitation ranges between 500 and 650 mm with the precipitation
ranging between 440 and 1020 mm. The highest values are measured during June and
February is considered the driest month. There have been significant changes in the
temperature during the 21st century. There has been significant amount of summer warnings in
the Western part of the Balkan countries. The projections for climate change indicate that the air
temperature during this time will rise by 5 to 8 degrees. During the period between 2021 and
2050, the summer days would count up to 90 days. There have been further projections that
percentage of the summer days would rise from 18 to 20 percent to over 40 percent. Winters
are milder with reduced number of colder days.
Disaster Impact on Cultural Heritage
There are close to nine world heritage sites in Bulgaria inscribed between 1979 and
1985. Seven amongst them are the cultural sites while two amongst them are natural. The
popular amongst them are Ancient City of Nessebar, well restored architectural reserve
renowned for churches and Rila monastery which is considered the first hermit of Bulgaria.
Natural disasters have been a sole threat to the cultural heritage of Bulgaria. Floods,
Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, fires, wind effects and long-term impact of
climate results in permanent damage of the cultural heritage or the complete destruction of the
around the cultural heritage both immovable and movable. Various heritage objects remain
further damaged by inadequate interventions since immediate responses to the basic needs
leads to emergency measures and rehabilitation and planning schemes for the recovery that are
quite insensitive to the cultural heritage. The Independent Evaluation Group of World Bank put
across that the cost incurred in the disaster damage is rising and in 1990s it was found to reach
at US$ 652 billion that was 15 times higher compared to the figures of the 1950s. The total
number of events also rose by 400 percent between the year 1975 and 2005 with close to 2.6
billion remaining affected by the natural disasters in the last ten years. With regards to the facts,
the committee of European Parliament on the Education and Culture put across a study towards
strengthening the European co-operation in protecting the cultural heritage from the natural
disasters.

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New Economic Opportunities that Triggers Urban–Rural Reverse
As far as the economic opportunities are concerned, Bulgaria experienced an expansion
in the gross domestic product by 0.80 percent in second quarter of the 2019. The key sectors of
the Bulgarian economy has been services that comprised of 59 percent of the overall
expenditure followed by the industry that caters about 24 percent and agriculture that comprises
of about 5 percent(14). On expenditure side, the consumption in the household represents the
key GDP component and account for about 63 percent of the total usage. This is followed by the
fixated capital formation and government expenditure that accounts for 21 percent and 17
percent respectively. Export of the goods and services accounts for close to 65 percent of the
total GDP while imports accounted for close to about 66 percent. The country has primarily
exported, manufactured goods, transport and machinery equipment and chemicals. Bulgaria’s
key export partners has been Turkey, Germany, Italy, Romania and Greece(china-cee.eu 2019)
The strongest sectors within the economy has been mining, metallurgy, tourism and agriculture.
The primary industrial exports has been iron and steel, clothing, refined fuel and machinery.
2.8 Industrial Food as Cultural Heritage of Bulgaria
There has been instances when companies turned into ethnographic Bulgarian images
for selling their products thereby emphasizing the visions of the rural life and cultural heritage
with regard to Bulgaria’s technology of yogurt making (Stoilova 2014). Bulgarian yogurt had
been the symbol of the health and wellbeing which acts as a source of pride for the consumers
in the post socialist Bulgaria. The branding strategies showed how the companies transformed
its foods into meaningful products thereby contributing beyond turning them into profitable
commodities.
The yogurt has been assumed to ensure health to the people irrespective of the national,
historical or the social background. Bulgarian yogurt may be special and unique not only in
terms of the preparation methods and taste but it also represented longevity, health, and
wellbeing associated with the west and the modern society. Yogurt puts across self-assertive
claim that is persuasive enough in putting the national tradition at par with the European
modernity. Hence, fusion of ‘universal and particular’ that occurred in quotidian consumption
and production of yogurt provided people the sense of Bulgarian era at a time that is marked by
reorientation and dramatic social change.

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Methodology
Research methodology represents the specific techniques or methods used for
identifying, selecting, processing and analyzing relevant information about the research topic.
While addressing the research objectives and research questions, specific information is
required and those must be analyzed in the most logical and systematic manner and entire
methods to be undertaken is included under research methodology. As highlighted by Kumar
(2019), the components of research methodology are research paradigm, research approach,
design, strategy, data collection technique, sampling, data analysis techniques and ethical
considerations. The techniques that have been followed in this study are described below.
Research paradigm
According to Kivunja and Kuyini (2017), research paradigm implies the basic
assumptions or set of beliefs regarding the nature, source and direction of the data and the
expected outcome. The most commonly used research paradigms are interpretivism, positivism,
realism and pragmatism. While interpretivism relies on the qualitative analysis of the gathered
information on the basis of the judgment and rationality of the researcher, positivism involves
scientific analysis of numeric or quantitative information to answer the research questions
(Idowu 2016). Realism leads to analysis of the research topic and information independently
and away from perceived reality and pragmatism allows for application of both the qualitative
and quantitative method of analysis (Kankam 2019).
In the given study, the nature of the topic implies an explanatory study on the basis of
secondary data. The significance of cultural heritage of Bulgaria in the context of international
tourists was examined using secondary statistics. Thus, interpretivism research paradigm was
followed.
Research approach
Research approach represents the plans and processes involving the assumptions of
the detailed processes of gathering, evaluating, and interpreting the relevant information to
answer the research questions (Tuffour 2017). The approach is selected based on the nature of
the research problem. The research approaches are of two types, inductive and deductive. As
highlighted by Woiceshyn and Daellenbach (2018), inductive approach leads to generation of
new theory, by applying exploratory method on primarily qualitative information, while deductive
research approach results in examination of the data against already established theories and
this is manly used for explaining the cause and effects of the research phenomenon. Deductive

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approach of research is mostly suitable with quantitative information. Deductive research was
chosen for this study, as based on the topic, secondary and quantitative information was
collected and those analyzed using quantitative analysis techniques. No new theories were
generated from the data, as only the existing information were examined to explain the causal
relationship between the research variables.
Research design
Research design can be defined as the entire framework consisting of suitable research
processes and techniques applied for conducting the research study (Creswell and Poth 2016).
Survey, correlational, descriptive, experimental, semi-experimental and case study are some of
the most widely used research designs. In this research on the Bulgaria tourism, descriptive
research design has been chosen. Descriptive research is majorly theory based research
design and it is mostly suited for explanatory studies. As secondary research was conducted in
this study, hence, descriptive method was appropriate to analyze the information to give the
overview of the international tourist arrivals in Bulgaria and the factors that draw tourists to
Bulgaria. Data collection process
The given study on the Bulgaria tourism is based on secondary research. As stated by
Leavy (2017), secondary research is the one that is based on secondary information, collected
from published and authentic sources, such as, books, journals, government websites, reports
and publications, official websites of organizations, and newspaper articles. In this study,
primary research was not possible, which involves collecting data directly from the first hand
sources as selecting a population and sample to gather relevant and precise information on the
factors that increases British tourist arrivals in Bulgaria was not possible. Therefore, secondary
information regarding the tourism of Bulgaria, the trend in international tourist arrivals, tourist
arrival from the UK and the most popular factors that draw majority of international tourists in
Bulgaria were obtained from various official websites and reports.
Data analysis process
As per the research paradigm, approach and design, this given study followed a
descriptive and explanatory research design and those were applied on the secondary
information obtained to address the research objectives. Thematic analysis technique was
applied to analyze the information for answering the research questions in the most systematic
and rational manner. Under this technique, several relevant themes are chosen and the

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information is analyzed and presented accordingly under each theme (Terry et al. 2017). This is
beneficial for a descriptive research to keep the study narrowed and in the single direction.
Data analysis and interpretation
This section presents the thematic analysis of secondary data collected to analyze the
international tourist arrivals in Bulgaria, the impact of cultural heritage on the Bulgaria tourism,
extent of tourism from the UK to Bulgaria, factors that pull tourists to Bulgaria and the potential
expansion of the tourism industry of Bulgaria. Based on the data, several graphs have been
provided to give an easy overview of the tourism sector scenario of Bulgaria and the
interpretation of the findings followed.
Tourism in Bulgaria and its cultural heritage
The tourism sector in Bulgaria is a highly significant sector that makes a large
contribution to the economy. Due to its location, Bulgaria has a rich history of many civilizations
in the past, such as, Greeks, Romans, Thracians, Bulgars, Slavs, Ottomans, and Eastern
Romans or the Byzantines (Todorova 2018). Hence, the cultural heritage of the nation is one of
the major tourist attractions. It has several historical tourist destinations and cultural and
historical artifacts across the country which draws millions of international visitors each year
(Bozhinova and Georgieva 2019). There are 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country,
reflecting the rich history of Bulgaria. Among the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the
ritual of fire dance, Nestinarstvo, has been included and its origin lies in the Thracian civilization
(Whc.unesco.org 2020). Not only the cultural history, but the natural tourist destinations, such
as, the beaches and the winter resorts are also one of the best in the region, accompanied by
relatively cheaper economy. In the past decade, tourism in Bulgaria has increased rapidly and
massively and the trend is still going upwards. Apart from the cultural heritage, Bulgaria has
also preserved their rural establishments and villages and protected the ancient architecture,
which serve as major tourist attractions (Ivanov et al. 2018).
Among these sites, the most popular tourist attractions are the UNESCO cultural
heritages, such as, Ancient City of Nessebar, Boyana Church, Madara Rider, Rila Monastery,
Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo, Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari and
the natural heritages, namely, Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and
Other Regions of Europe, Pirin National Park and Srebarna Nature Reserve (Whc.unesco.org
2020). All these sites are highly significant in the tourism industry of Bulgaria.

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Apart from the cultural heritages, the country also has numerous natural sites that have
been attracting tourists since long. The major attraction points include Rila Lakes, Belogradchick
Rocks, Stone Forest, Devil’s Throat Cave, Pirin National Park, Prohodna Cave, Krushuna
Waterfalls, Melnik Pyramids, Beglik Tash and Srebarna Nature Reserve (Bach 2017).
Increase in number of international arrivals
Over the past two decades, the number of international tourists to Bulgaria has
increased quite significantly. While in 2000, Bulgaria received only 2.79 million of international
tourists, in 2018, the number had increased to 9.27 million (World Bank 2020). According to the
Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2018 report, Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria holds the
second ranking in Europe for achieving 15.2% increase in the growth of international visitors in
2017 ().The average growth of 9% per year in international visitors in Sofia is the highest overall
increase in international visitors for 2009 – 2017 in Europe (investsofia.com 2019).

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Reference:
Milev, O., Vázquez, J.L., Ivanova, D. and Georgiev, I., 2014. Innovative strategies in the
management of alternative tourism. Responsibility & Sustainability, 2(1), pp.65-70.