Tourism status and dynamics in rural areas – challenges and opportunities
Authors:
Blaga
Stoykova
Trakia Universiry – Stara Zagora
Juliana
Yarkova
Trakia Universiry – Stara Zagora
Emil
Mutafov
Trakia Universiry – Stara Zagora
Pages:
367-
372
Abstract:
The decade before the global Covid-19 pandemic, we monitored tourism as one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy worldwide. This research analyzes the dynamics in accommodation places and the trend in the number of realized overnight stays in all seven rural districts of Bulgaria. Reported results in the tourism sector regarding the development of accommodation base follow the general direction of stabilization of the Bulgarian economy in the decade after the World Economic Crisis (2008). Trends of stable growth of tourism are monitored in five of the seven surveyed districts until 2019. For the period 2015–2019, only in two of the districts, there are negative trends reported. The year of the Covid-19 pandemic reversed trends in 4 of the districts. Thus, the optimistic predictions for the development of tourism in Bulgaria at the end of 2019 are not realized after the start of the global pandemic by Covid-19. In 2020, the number of overnight stays is closely linked to the restrictions imposed by the WHO and the limited possibilities for travel outside the place of permanent residence. Some accommodations were also closed. The reported trend of increasing the incoming mechanical flow of population to areas and settlements of rural type provoked interest which needs to review how this will affect the development of tourism and of course the overall development of these districts.
Keywords:
tourism, accommodation, overnight stays, Bulgaria.
Download
232 downloads since 1.3.2025 г.
NA