The biggest event for tourism professionals will take place in Plovdiv in June 2015. As usual, the most renowned tour operators and airlines across Europe will attend.

In June this year Plovdiv will host INDEX – one of the most prestigious professional events in the field of tourism. Its goal will be to attract the attention of big companies to the fast-developing markets in Europe. Every year the biggest tour operators in Europe, market managers, online intermediaries and investors take part in it.

The news that Plovdiv will be the host was officially announced during the annual meeting of REETEX to almost 500 representatives of the tourism business from 47 countries. The director of REETEX Eric Layden and Plovdiv’s Deputy Mayor Stefan Stoyanov signed a cooperation agreement. The main focus of the prestigious event in the British capital was Bulgaria, represented by Plovdiv and Sofia. Some of the leading airlines and tour operators attending the event included Kuoni Worldwide, Destinology, Shearings Holidays, Regent Holidays, Sun Hotels, Obzor Holidays, Carlson Wagonlit, Travel Republic, Germania Airlines, Finnair Airlines, Explore Worldwide, and Thomas Cook Airlines.

“Hosting such a prestigious event in Plovdiv gives us the opportunity to develop further our main European markets as well as attract new airlines that would start flying to our city”, said Mayor Ivan Totev. “We have the potential to significantly increase the number of tourists by 2019 and hosting INDEX in Plovdiv is an important step in that direction”, he added.

Between January and November 2014 the number of overnight stays in Plovdiv increased by 14% compared to the previous year. The total number of tourists is over 600,000 people. As one of the most popular tourist destination in Bulgaria the city offers a wide variety of products. In 2014 Plovdiv won the title European Capital of Culture 2019 which is the biggest cultural event in Europe. Another great acknowledgement came from the largest travel guide book Lonely Planet that put Plovdiv on a list of 10 cities one must visit in 2015.

In 2015 the renowned INDEX event will in fact be hosted in Eastern Europe for the first time. It is one of the key events that Plovdiv Municipality will organise this year in order to promote the region’s growth in the tourism sector.