On 24 June 2021 was held a meeting in the Ministry of Development, Labour and Technologies in Warsaw between the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria in the Republic of Poland, Mrs. Margarita Ganeva and state secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Prime Minister for the Tourism sector and the promotion of the Polish brand, Mr. Andrzej Gut-Mostowy, initiated by the Bulgarian side. Mr. Nikolay Kostov, advisor in the Bulgarian Embassy and head of the National Tourist Representation was also present at the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. Gut-Mostowy remarked that Bulgaria is among Polish tourists’ main destinations for vacationing, which is due also to the assured connection between the capitals of the two countries by Polish Airlines LOT. He noted that the establishment of a National Tourist Representation of Bulgaria in Warsaw is a correct and timely step, through which the cooperation in the Tourism sector will develop. The state secretary also expressed his hope that with the cultural closeness of the two peoples and the communication between them through tourism, the Bulgarian-Polish relations will continue to develop even better.

Ambassador Ganeva underlined that one of the priorities in our bilateral cooperation is in fact the Tourism sector. In 2019 over 445 thousand Polish citizens visited Bulgaria, while around 70 thousand Bulgarians visited Poland. In 2020, despite the pandemic-related difficulties, out of all tourists that visited our country, the group of Polish citizens was the third biggest (after that of Romania and Germany). There is also an increase in interest by Bulgarian citizens in travelling to Poland. This requires the establishment, by the competent institution in both countries, of the necessary conditions for free travel, health, and security guarantees.

In this context, a plea was made towards the Polish side to clarify some details after publishing the information on 23.6.2021 about the imposition of mandatory quarantine for all persons, arriving from countries outside the Schengen space and the EEA. Ambassador Ganeva noted that after the decision for announcing the list of countries in the “Green area”, Bulgaria being one of them, the two countries’ governments, similarly to the Visegrad Four states, would be best to achieve the formal removal of the restrictions on travel between them based on bilateral agreements. Both countries have similar agreements – Poland with Croatia, Turkey, and others, Bulgaria with Romania and the Czech Republic. The Polish side was familiarized by the representative of the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism with the current conditions and possibilities for travel and tourism in Bulgaria. The team of the state secretary Mr. Gut-Mostowy promised to publish information on the Ministry’s web page to assure the Polish tourists that Bulgaria isn’t included in the groups of countries, for travelling to which there are restrictions imposed.