Cruise tourism in Bulgaria

Petra Ilcheva and Vladimir Zhechev

About the authors

Vladimir Zhechev received his Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from

HAN University, Arnhem Business School, the Netherlands. He is currently an
MBA student at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK and simultaneously
occupies a marketing assistant position in a private organization.

Petra Ilcheva is a graduate of International University College, Bulgaria holding a

Bachelor Degree in Hospitality Management. Her specialty is in alternative
tourism due to her international background in the field.

Abstract
The predominant rationale of this study is to outline the chief prerequisites for the
development of cruise tourism in Bulgaria. The paper not only reveals the significance of
the chosen type of alternative tourism in Bulgaria, but it also examines the foremost
development and demand factors that have contributed to its current state in the country.
Finally, the study sheds a light on the future growth of cruise tourism and the concomitant
alterations in the tourism sector as a result of the former.

Key words: cruise, Bulgaria, alternative tourism

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1698105

 1. Introduction

Presently, cruise tourism is emerging rapidly and is claimed to be one of the foremost areas of
tourism growth since the beginning of the new millennium. Furthermore, the process of
revival of cruising has taken place in the last four decades and at present it accounts for a
narrow but growing niche of the global tourism industry. Alternatively, cruise tourism is
regarded as the fastest growing segment of the leisure tourism industry with travel to the
Caribbean region accounting for approximately 50 percent of the global market for such
products (Wood, 2000). As a matter of fact, the Caribbean, Europe, and Alaska have
established themselves as key cruising spots, which rapid advancement is devoted to the large
number of cruise ships, cruise lines, and the creation of more cruise corporations.

In an actual fact, building and sustaining a positive image holds a significant role when
promoting ports of call and cities to potential developers, investors and visitors. At present,
cruise companies are increasingly evolving in product terms and positioning of their brand
names. In that way they enable customers to identify their products, regardless of the intense
competition (Dowling, 2006). Additionally, proper positioning and positive brand image make
customers less price sensitive and facilitate their decision making due to the reliance on
affirmative past experiences with the respective companies.

In the context of Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, with its strategic geographical location and rich
natural resources, boasts very good conditions for development of tourism in general. One of
the most significant prerequisites for this development is the Black Sea coast. It stretches from
Northeast to Southwest Bulgaria and attracts a multitude of local and international tourists
every year. Given these resources, Bulgaria is deemed to have a real potential and capacity to
expand its cruise tourism, particularly – river and sea cruising.

Effectively, a Black Sea cruise offers a unique opportunity to explore a region which offers
ancient treasures, astonishing places and spectacular architectural works. A cruise along the
Black sea also involves visits of many beaches, which enjoy unadulterated sunshine during the
2

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1698105

whole summer season. On the other hand, a Danube River cruise is the best way to become
familiar with natural landscapes and cultural heritages which have witnessed many nations’
historical influence. On a Danube River cruise, Europe's vineyard-lined valleys and beautifully
preserved medieval towns in countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Romania can be discovered. Since the number of cruise vessels and industry itself keep
growing larger, greater investments are also anticipated. Eventually,
nowadays the term cruise goes beyond having a pleasurable sea trip in a liner. It is being
viewed as an attractive voyage, which offers joyful experience, safety, quality food, sport
facilities, shopping centers, entertainment venues and excellent service.

Based on the abovementioned factors of importance of cruise tourism, it can be concluded

that the high quality services and the globalization of operations of cruise providers further
intensify competition among them. In addition both competition and more demanding
customers push the quality limits higher, which altogether fosters the growth of cruise
tourism. As a whole, the researcher has chosen to study this particular type of alternative
tourism due to the fact that it represents a chief part of world tourism and due to its
considerable global significance in terms of its economic, social, cultural and environmental
impacts.

2. Literature review

In present times, the cruise ship segment of leisure tourism has received a lot of attention by
academic literature (Duman, 2002, Kester, 2003). In real terms, the interest in the segment is
justified by its enormous growth reaching over $ 1900 million in 2005 (Datamonitor, 2005).
According to the European Cruise Council (2005) the market is still in its growth stage and is
not likely to stagnate in the short run. As a matter of fact, the growth tendency is valid for
regions such as Eastern Europe for example, as cruise tourism represents a narrow
segment of the tourism market (Euromonitor International, 2007). However, a review of the
e x i s t i n g literature on cruise tourism has revealed that there is a lack of researches on the

3
Eastern European cruise tourism market and particularly Bulgaria as a prospective
destination given its rich resources and location.

2.1 The origins of cruise tourism and competitive landscape

Essentially, the origins of cruise tourism stretch back to the ninetieth century with the first
ship sailing from UK to Portugal and Spain (Dickinson and Vladimir, 2007). In series of press
releases in the first half of 2005 the Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) has illustrated the
unparalleled growth of the industry ever since.

In an actual fact, the roots of the modern cruise tourism date back to sixties of the previous
century (Catright and Baird, 1999). Due to the fact that the number of passengers declined
rapidly with the introduction of transatlantic flights, optimistic shipping entrepreneurs
decided to shift their business and position themselves as holiday service providers as
opposed to transportation. As a result, the first movers in the face of “Carnival Cruise Lines”
(1972), “Royal Caribbean Cruise Line” (1969) and “Norwegian Caribbean Line” (1966)
established the initial structure of the new subtype of alternative tourism industry. By the end
of 1970 the number of passengers who took a cruise was limited to less than half a million
tourists (Cruise Line Association, 2005).

Hitherto, no expert in the field anticipated so swift growth of the cruise industry during the
past ten years (Murray, 2005). The robust growth coupled with the lucrative investment
opportunities have led to the development of contemporary equipped ships, attractive
cruise lines and establishment of cruise conglomerates. Identifying travel characteristics
could thus be regarded as essential element in understanding the actual cruise tourism
performance, and as a tool which enables effective planning of marketing schemes to
explore potential markets (Hung and Petrick, 2009).

Naturally, the growth of the sector, coupled with the self-enhancing trends for provision of
superior service quality, have brought intense competition. Viewed from another perspective,
4
intense competition not only enhances the dynamics of the market, but it also pushes prices
down thus working in favor of broader customer base which could not afford cruise trip
previously. Additionally, as the customer base augments, clients are becoming more
demanding, which also results in necessity for companies to offer better value to their
customers (Travel Trade, 2001).

Other scientists have studied the market structure of cruise tourism and have found that the
industry is dominated by oligopoly with three major players holding approximately 75% of its
total value (Wood, 2004). The author also highlights that most major players flag their vessels
in countries with lower control and less stringent legislation, where exemptions are possible.
Thus levels of competition and actual outcomes of rising standards are distorted due to the
domination of the big players.

2.2 Present-day cruise tourism

Nowadays, cruise tourism is deemed by scholars as one of the most rapidly expanding types of
alternative tourism (Dickinson and Vladimir, 1997). The compound annual growth since 1980
rate is deemed to have been over 8% (Figure 1) which is twice the growth of tourism in
general (Crociere, 1999).

Figure 1 Global Summary Statistics for the Cruise Industry, 2004 – 2007

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In this regard, several scholars have investigated different characteristics of cruise ships.
Dowling and Vasudavan (2000) and Wood (2004) have studied the growth of the cruise sector
and its impacts on the economies of different ports (Wilkinson, 1999; Dwyer and Forsyth,
1998). Other researchers have devoted a great deal of time studying customer relationship
management on cruise ships (Petrick, 2003) and the working conditions on a cruise liner
(Mather, 2002).

In terms of on board services, Ritzer (1993) argues that volume is often used as a proxy for
quality. In view of this, cruise ship companies put a strong emphasis on the size and amenities
on board, as well as the wide array of entertainment and other activities offered on the vessel
throughout their marketing campaigns. As a whole, the major source of competition between
cruise providers has evolved to one that is based on facilities and range of activities (Sarna and
Hannafin, 2003).

According to Myers (2007) the chief reason for customers choosing a cruise holiday is to get
rid of strict rules imposed outside the cruise ship. According to the author land holidays are
subject to more stringent norms, which are not witnessed when on a cruise holiday.
Conversely, Edgell (1990) argues that safety and security have always been an important
factor considered by travelers.

Overall, cruise holidays are normally promoted as single, all inclusive vacation, incorporating
all elements and satisfying all needs and wants a customer may have during a holiday. For
some tourists the cruise vessel represents the actual destination as opposed to the ports of
call (Dowling and Vasudavan, 2000).

2.3 Major companies and types of tourism

At present day, there are three major cruise corporations: Carnival, Royal Caribbean
International and Star Cruise Corporation (Dowling, 2006). Despite the limited number of
providers of such services, the growing interest in cruise tourism leads to building, improving
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and providing new, bigger and more modern liners. The need for such enhancements was
recognized more than forty years ago. At the end of 1970’s some new improvements were
introduced as part of the entertainment programs on cruise lines. Cruisers could already enjoy
their stay better, going to cinemas, discos and casinos (Jordan, 2002). Subsequently, the year
2004 witnessed the launch of the then the world’s largest cruise liner – Queen Mary 2, costing
US $800 million and being able to carry around 3100 passengers and over 1000 crew members
(Dowling, 2006).

As highlighted before, since the beginning of cruise tourism travels, North America, Central
America and Europe have established themselves as major cruise spots. Substantially, in 2004
the North American market for cruise tourism earned the highest net profit among all
destinations (Klein, 2005). Furthermore, despite being a lucrative element of alternative
tourism, a cruise destination should be viewed as a complex matter that incorporates the
development of sustainability of cruise tourism (Hritz and Cecil, 2008). To be able to better
understand the sustainability prospects of cruise tourism, one has to determine the types of
customers that choose this type of alternative tourism and their attributes. The Cruise Line
International Association (CLIA) has defined six different groups of people in the cruise
market. The first one includes people who intend to try something new, another group unites
people who would like to escape from habitual everyday way of living, and still others are
seeking to learn more about different destinations. Moreover, there are two less popular
groups defined with regards to their preferences: customers who are wealthy and look for
luxury experience and such who search for the best value. Finally, according to Miller and
Grazer (2002), the last group is the senior social segment.

Provided these six distinct categories of customers, cruise companies can more easily choose
the target audience to concentrate on. However, it is also important to outline that first time
cruisers usually represent a very high percentage of travelers on a ship. It is also vital to be
pointed out that usually customers buy packages that respond to their wants and desires, but
prior to purchasing media impact exerts a significant influence on the final buying decision.

7
Consequently, after the first cruise voyage comes either future satisfaction or dissatisfaction,
perceived as a result of participation and experience (Trauer, 2004).

Essentially, it is valuable and less expensive to build up loyalty and retain current customers
than to attract new ones (Petrick et al., 2006). The case of Bar Harbor is a good instance of
satisfied customers, not only first-time visitors, but also loyal clients who were satisfied with
the time spent at the destination during their cruise. Such customers are likely to bring better
returns and become an additional source of income for the suppliers of cruise services (Gabe
et al., 2006). Alternatively, despite the cruise destination’s attractiveness, social contacts also
play a major role in retaining customers. In particular, according to Yarnal and Kerstetter
(2005), in cases of repeated cruise partaking social relationships grow from acquaintances to
friendships as those people share same or similar experiences.

2.4 Place in literature

The cruise tourism and the cruise market in general represent a very compelling aspects of
tourism. On the one hand, the offers from various cruise providers are evolving at a very fast
pace and thus they fulfill the needs and desires of a much diversified customer base. On the
other hand, the specific types of services needed on a cruise ship determine some
communication and service attributes with regards to customers” culture and lifestyle that
are a very attractive part of academic literature.
This study illustrates the importance of those attributes by also focusing on the purchasing
activity. Every tourist who chooses a cruise vacation is showered with information from
multiple sources and despite the decision on which one to opt for, they have to decide
whether the particular itinerary suits their needs.

Finally, this research aims at investigating the background and current state of the cruise
tourism in Bulgaria. Not only it analyzes the market, but the research also incorporates
demand alternatives and future projections of the market as a part of the tourism industry in
the country. Based on the abovementioned, inferences about the possible micro and macro
8
environment positive and negative impacts are drawn. The outcomes of the study hold
considerable managerial implications as they disclose the importance of efficient maintenance
of strategic policy towards the demand for cruise tourism.

3. Analysis of the development of cruise tourism in Bulgaria

3.1 Analysis of tourism supply

Bulgaria is a country featuring a strategic location, which makes it very suitable for the
development of tourism, including cruise tourism. Both sea and river cruises’ outreach can
be successfully expanded.

The major types of cruise tourism that can be developed in Bulgaria are river and sea cruises.
In this chapter, the chief factors that predispose the expansion of these types of cruise
tourism will be explained and potential cruise destinations in Bulgaria will be highlighted.
River cruises: main resource for that type of cruise tourism is the Danube River. The river
has a number of characteristics that make it a key factor for cruise tours:

It is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after
Volga River.
Danube flows through ten countries- Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia,
Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine and more than seventy cities in
Europe
The river passes through ten cities in Bulgaria- Vidin, Kozloduy, Lom , Nikopol,
Oryahovo, Belene, Svishtov, Rousse, Silistra and Tutracan
An important factor nearby the river is Srebarna Natural Reserve
A significant transport route- Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, Danube- Tisa-Danube Canal;
Danube-Black Sea Canal.
Ports- Rousse, Vidin (Kirschner et al., 2009)

9
Sea cruises: the Eastern border of the country- Black Sea- is the main resource for cruise
tourism and the third in Europe after the Mediterranean Sea and the Northern Sea. The
region is an important center of tourism during the summer season, drawing millions of
foreign and local tourists alike and constituting one of the country's most popular tourist
destinations. Additionally, the following characteristics have a positive impact on enriching the
tourist diversity:

Inland sea; the Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the
Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean; strait of Kerch
connects it to the Sea of Azov.

the sea lies between 6 countries: Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine

main towns- Varna, Bourgas, Pomorie, Balchik, Nessebar, Kavarna and Sozopol

Holiday resorts-Ahtopol, Albena, Balchik, Burgas, Byala, St. Constantine and Helena, E mona,
Golden Sands, Kamchia, Kavarna, Kiten, Lozenetz, Nessebar, Obzor, Pomorie, Primorsko,
Rusalka, Sozopol

Ports- Varna, Bourgas, Nessebar,Balchik, Sozopol (Allnutt, 2007)

Potential cruise destinations in Bulgaria are available in Table 1 below. Namely, those are:
Varna, Bourgas, Sunny beach, Kavarna, Balchik, Nessebar, Ahtopol, Sozopol, Rousse, Vidin
(Jamieson, 2005; http://www.bulgariansearesorts.com; http://www.grao.bg/):

10
 Table 1 Potential cruise destinations in Bulgaria:

City Location Availability Size Important characteristics

of airport (population)

Varna Northeast  357 821 deemed as the sea capital of Bulgaria; biggest
seaside city
Burgas Southeast  218 556 Burgas has the largest and most important
Bulgarian port; second largest sea city
Sunny Southeast - 12 995 The seaside resort is the biggest and most
popular holiday resort in Bulgaria. It
Beach
accommodates tourists in over 800 hotels with
more than 300 000 beds.
Kavarna Northeast - 12 804 seaside resort in the Dobrudja region of
northeastern Bulgaria where a little port exists
Balchik Northeast - 12 998 A coastal town and seaside resort in the
Southern Dobrudja area
Nessebar Southeast - 11 165 Nessebar has emerged as a fortified Thracian
settlement over 9,000 years ago and changed
many times before being captured by the
Bulgarians in the 7th century.
Sozopol Southeast - 4 732 seaside resort mostly known for the
Apolonia art and film festival
Ahtopol Southeast - 1 321 close to the border with Turkey
Rousse Northeast  173 672 The Rousse-Giurgevo Friendship Bridge, the only
one in the shared Bulgarian - Romanian section of
the Danube, crosses the river nearby.
Vidin Northwest - 65 139 A ferryboat complex, on the opposite side of the
river, connects Vidin with Calafatis and is located
2 km away from the town. The complex is to be
replaced by the Vidin-Calafat bridge.

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Table 2 : Type of Bulgarian ports and possibility for accommodating large ships

Port Sea port River port Availability Pier/Berths

for large ships as a structure S-
(S- strong, W- strong, F - fair,
weak) W-weak
Varna S F
Burgas S F
Nessebar W F
Sozopol W W
Balchik W W
Rousse S F
Vidin S F

One of the major cruise companies in Bulgaria is Contitrans-M ltd. (http://www.contitrans-

m.com). Customers are offered customized cruise voyages and planned trips and the
company ensures good quality of its tourist product.

The Bulgarian cruise market segment is expanding at a quick pace, which is further fostered
by the changing demand patterns and altering strategic policies of cruise tourism
suppliers. In an actual fact, the supply from foreign companies is greater than that from
Bulgarian ones. Some organizations such as Holland America, NCL, MSC, Louis Cruises and Star
Cruises provide information about the cruises, cruise lines, packages to the Bulgarian market.

The particular segment has evolved from an expensive experience for wealthy people to a
mass product targeting the broader public. This was primarily attributable to price
downward shifts and shorter cruise time. However, one of the chief disadvantages of
cruise providers in the country is the lack of proper communication with current and
prospective customers. Effectively, information on cruise attractions and availability is vague
and the message is not designed to serve the needs of customers.

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 Although, Bulgaria has a great potential for developing its cruise segment, there is an
emerging need for improvement of the supply connected with cruise tourism in the country.
Table 3 indicates the international companies, which include Bulgaria as a cruise
destination in their itinerary.

Table 3: Offered cruises in Bulgaria

Company Length of stay Port of call Dates of visiting

Azamara 12,14,23,26-day cruise Varna Aug.3,12,20,2010

Seabourn 14,21,28-day cruise Varna Jul.10,17,2010

Cruises
Princess 12-day cruise Varna Aug 7, Sep 12,2010
Cruises

NCL 10-day cruise Varna Sep 29,2009

Uniworld 16,28,30 nights cruise Rousse Mar.23,Apr.5,15,18,May
14,27, Jun 9, Jul.5,6,31, Sep. 16,28,
Oct.8,2010
Uniworld 8,14 day-cruise Vidin, Rousse, Apr 4,May 4,2009
Varna

Imperial 15-day cruise Nessebar Jul.12,16,26,Aug.

5,9,19,29,Sep.2,12,2010

Discovery Nessebar Feb 27, Apr10,25, Mar

13,16,25,28,30,31,32,43,45,47,60,74,89-
world day 27,Aug 31,Sep
cruise cruise 18,30,Oct 11,2009,Mar
15,Apr 12,27,2010
Seabourn 14,21,28-day cruise Nessebar Jul.10,17,2010
Silver sea 7-day cruise Nessebar Jun19,2010
Cruise
Crystal 12-day cruise Nessebar Jul 19,Aug 24, 2010
Cruises

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The most popular port of call in the country is Nessebar. The majority of cruises take place in
over 10 days, but the stays on a Bulgarian port are not more than 10 hours. From economical
point of view, this suggests reduced profits for Bulgarian marketers and mitigated revenue
sources for the country’s economy. All in all, the demand for cruise tourism in Bulgaria is
predetermined by some economic prerequisites, but it is also objective to mention that some
leisure trends, income increments and Western European lifestyle exert influence on the
growth of the segment.

3.2. Analysis of tourist demand

Tourists who choose cruise voyages for their holidays are much diversified not only socially,
but also in terms of preferences, motivation and purchasing behavior (Vianelli, 2009).
Although Bulgaria has resources and potential to develop its cruise tourism, the latter are not
sufficient to achieve it. Particularly, the lack of information provided to customers is one of
the major factors that exert negative influence. Recommendations from friends, Internet
issues, personal experience, travel agencies, brochures and magazines, different media
sources are the key factors that may have influence on the decision making process of holiday
destination selection. However, Bulgaria has a lot to improve in this aspect.

Some articles indicate that there is a growing demand from Russian customers to the
Bulgarian cruise market. Moreover, there is a high propensity for cruise tourism growth in
both countries given the rapidly growing demand. Additionally, the majority of cruisers are
Americans, who usually travel in luxurious and expensive lines, British, Canadian, German,
Dutch and French. Most of the ships use flag of convenience - they fly Panamas’, Malta’s
flags, but mostly Bahamas’ flag (Kitanov, 2009, Director of Marine station, Varna, Bulgaria).

Many vessels of British, American, German, Portuguese, French, Greek, Dutch, Cypriot
companies sail to Bulgarian ports and mainly to Varna’s seaport.

14
There are three categories of ships that have a stop in the country, which are presented in
Table 4 below:

Table 4: Ships’ category and capacity

Weight of ships in tons Length of ships in Capacity (berths)

meters
25000-30000 220-250 800-1100
18000-25000 200-220 400-600
Up to 4000 100 150-200

Source: Kitanov (2009), Director of Marine station, Varna, Bulgaria

Meanwhile, there is a lack of new and well equipped vessels. Furthermore, ports’
infrastructure is relatively poor. Bulgaria is planning to build new ports besides the existing
ones – ports of Varna, Burgas, Balchik, Nessebar. Despite the prospective focus on Russian
tourists, there are many infrastructural standards that have to be met in order to reach
satisfactory service level.

Alternatively, the demand is always dependent on the public’s income. Bulgaria can focus its
target marketing on English, German, and Russian tourists, due to the latter’s positive travel
intensions and stable economic status. The neighbor countries Serbia, Hungary, Moldova,
Slovakia and Czech Republic can also be targeted as they have demonstrated growing interest
in cruising (Allnutt, 2007).

Eventually, it can be summarized that Bulgaria is a country with developing cruise tourism, but
at the same time it does not utilize its resources fully and does not offer sufficient services to
expand its foreign tourist demand. It can be outlined that there is insufficient communication
with current and prospective customers, which includes poor advertising and no support by
the government.

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3.3 SWOT analysis

Strengths

Location and resources – Bulgaria features a very good location in Europe, which
provides the country with outstanding benefits with regards to its tourism development.
Additionally, the multitude of ports on the Black sea coast and the Danube River
predispose the emerging growth of cruise tourism. Being considered as a popular
tourist destination, Bulgaria offers number of attractions and natural sites listed in the
World Heritage list. The country offers reasonable prices, which also contributes to the
growth of cruise and other types of tourism.

Weaknesses

Lacks of information – customers are not p r o v i d e d w i t h e n o u g h information on

the cruise voyages available, which hampers the growth of the segment.

Unpopularity - Bulgaria, despite its advantages geographically and naturally, is not

among the countries with an established image of cruise destinations.

Opportunities

Future pricing structure - The country could take as an advantage its generally
reasonable prices for foreigners to develop strong target
management and product differentiation according to needs and expectations of target
groups in future. This factor may well serve the need of customers from countries with
lower average income.

Inclusion in foreign cruise itineraries – the country’s inclusion may lead to a greater
demand from foreign customers following infrastructural developments. This can be
16
achieved through the support of government and media sources. Finally, in order to
avoid intensification of international competition, shortage of capital stock and
incorrect development planning, the country has to be concentrated on differentiation
initiatives.

Threats

Limited future expected port growth – the limited growth of Bulgarian ports may restrict
the future interest in the country as a cruise destination, both as infrastructure and
capacitywise.

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4. Discussion and conclusion

There are ships that represent exclusivity and traditions featuring great facilities, lots of
entertainment, fine dining, and many others. Passengers enjoy comfort, dining and extreme
experience. Some ships these days are so gigantic that they can offer more diversions than
an average small town, but even ships that are not so enormous have all the facilities a
person can imagine a cruise ship possesses.

Bulgaria has always been very well developed country in the field of tourism and attracts
millions of people every year. The country combines in its comparatively small land all the
natural resources - forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, greenery, classy resorts and long
coastline that entice foreign and local tourists.

Because of its size, Bulgaria cannot offer huge ports, but it can rather improve the existing
ones infrastructure. In addition, as a host country, it can make good first impression to visitors
by organizing different activities and excursions around the ports. In this respect, the country
has done the first step towards utilization of resources. In particular, during spring until
autumn two of the most attractive towns along the Black sea coast (Varna and Nessebar)
become harbors to many cruise liners. Despite the fact that these ports of call are visited by
many tourists, the country has a lot more to do in order to be able to exploit the full potential
of this type of alternative tourism.

If the duration of stay is longer, passengers could be offered to points of interest along the
route, which could include medieval villages, museums, wine cellars, and colorful open
markets. A tranquil cruise experience coupled with fine dining and excellent service is a must
for experienced cruisers seeking something different and charming. Answers to questions
such as “What kinds of people are coming?”, “Why are they coming?”, “What more can we
offer them?” need to be studied in order to effectively develop cruise tourism in the country.
Commercialization and building brand awareness are of no less crucial importance. These
could be achieved by extensive media communication. People will be interested and willing to
18
try something new and different. Their choice would be influenced by tour operators, who can
include Bulgaria as a destination of their itinerary. In general, the public is becoming more
and more intelligent and if it is being offered compelling attractions, the likelihood of them
visiting Bulgaria again is very high, especially when it comes down to cruise tourism.
Regarding the fact that there is insufficient information provided to customers, it will be
wise involving incentive based reward system to travel agents so as they can contribute to the
popularization of cruise tourism. Thus both parties will benefit from the prospects of this
type of alternative tourism in the country. Utilizing marketing campaigns has a real potential
to augment revenues and bring more international tourists to Bulgaria.

Finally, the life cycle curve of the Bulgarian cruise market is still in its introduction stage.
Essentially, the country now faces the need to introduce the market, both potential and
existing, to the characteristics of the cruise product itself. Building up a positive image of
Bulgaria as a cruise destination and achieving high awareness is likely to become an additional
source of revenue for the country’s economy.

19
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