"All our colleagues are taking down the Israel tourist programs at this moment. Separately, I expect our citizens who are on the territory of Israel to contact our embassy there. Bulgaria has not suspended charter flights as long as they get an option to land. You see our government plane is flying too. Bulgaria has not stopped flights. So our citizens have options to leave Israel," said Evelina Puleva from the Burgas regional tourism chamber in an interview with Kalina Encheva from BNR-Burgas.

The regional tourism chamber advises tourists whose excursions have been canceled not to panic and to contact tour operators to find compensation options. According to Evelina Puleva, after the pandemic, Bulgarians already know how to proceed with their canceled vacations.

“Colleagues will not refuse to issue travel vouchers, to a large extent partners will also make a refund to the tourists. So there is money. The entire toolkit that was also used in the Covid-19 pandemic can be used. In addition, some of our clients have trip cancellation insurance. And in this case, it is a matter of force majeure and I assume that the insurers will recognize it and reimburse people. Tourists trust us. You saw how many vouchers were issued during the Covid pandemic and how the tour operators got refunds, especially the serious companies that run the programs to Israel. Now I see that all our colleagues are extremely conscientious, we work in sync, and the carriers reacted very quickly and immediately transported tourists back to Bulgaria."

The military conflict is affecting tourism flows throughout the region. People started canceling their trips to neighboring countries as well. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Bulgarians to avoid traveling to areas in Jordan, as mass demonstrations are taking place there with huge masses of people gathering because of the latest escalation of the war.

"We are currently monitoring the situation. We received encouraging information from colleagues in Egypt that it is calm in the resorts, but the situation is changing every hour. So far, Egypt has not been removed from sales. But I am not very hopeful about Israel. And I don't know what programs to plan for 2024. As for the Israeli tourists who traditionally visit our Black Sea coast, their loss will seriously affect us, of course," says Puleva.

Israel is among Bulgaira’s key markets for inbound tourism. In the post-Covid 2022, about 174 thousand tourists from Israel visited Bulgaria. Now the tourist sector is faced with a new challenge - how to compensate for another tourist outflow, after that of Russian tourists following the war in Ukraine. "It’s a difficult question, I've been asking myself since the situation escalated! Maybe Turkey is a good alternative, but in my opinion, Georgia is the market that could replace Israel," concludes Evelina Puleva.