Croatia's Tourism Minister Nikolina Brnjac and her Bulgarian counterpart Mariyana Nikolova on Thursday signed a memorandum on boosting cooperation in the tourism sector, the Croatian ministry said in a press release.

Brnjac and the visiting Bulgarian minister agreed that their countries fostered close, friendly and excellent political relations, and were trying to deepen relations in fields of common interest.

The Croatian minister informed Nikolova of the statistical results in Croatia’s tourist industry for the first nine months of 2020, and underscored that the government’s coronavirus bailout measures contributed to those positive results.

The two ministers also agreed that the European Union’s new facility aimed at the recovery and resilience of the economy following the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic would be of great importance.

Brnjac said that the memorandum would facilitate cooperation through the exchange of know-how, experiences and good practices in all forms of tourism.

Croatia finds Bulgaria’s experiences in developing winter and health tourism to be very valuable, she added.

In 2019, 65,862 Bulgarians visited Croatia, 3% more than in 2018, and generated 136,209 overnight stays (+5%).

In the first nine months of 2020, there were 13,863 Bulgarian guests in Croatia, down by 76%, and their overnight stays fell by 62% to 46,078 in comparison to the corresponding period of 2019.