By the end of June, about 10,000 Bulgarians had made reservations for trips to Italy. This was made clear during a meeting of Minister Nikolina Angelkova with the tour operators. Most of the tourists who have been to Italy for the carnivals have already returned, the ministry said.

The coronavirus situation is also expected to affect Bulgaria’s outbound tourism, because Italy is a major market.

Earlier today, Rumen Draganov of the Institute for Analysis and Evaluation in Tourism commented that the coronavirus has not affected the tourism so far.

About 395,000 Bulgarians are expected to travel abroad this month, and about 480,000 foreigners are expected to enter Bulgaria.

“About 400 people travel to Italy on a daily basis. We expect 555,000 people to enter the country in March,” Draganov explained.