Bulgarians flock to Edirne for winter needs

EDİRNE

Bulgarian citizens have flocked to the northwestern province of Edirne to meet their winter needs, everything from clothes to household goods, as traders in the city have been delighted to see the influx.

As the summer is over, Bulgarians have started to visit Edirne to buy clothing such as boots, coats, sweaters as well as household items like blankets and quilts before the winter arrives.

“We bought shampoo, clothes and whatever we saw. We bought tomatoes, salad and potatoes,” said Musa Musalova, a Bulgarian tourist.

Melek Bent, another Bulgarian visitor, said she also met the needs of her children in the city, while Yakup Yılmaz, another tourist, stated he is planning to do all winter shopping here.

Meanwhile, traders in the city are delighted with the influx of Bulgarians.

“There is a lot of density here as all the Bulgarians come to Edirne to get their winter needs,” said Yusuf Kul, a tradesman in the region.

Metin Reze, another tradesman, stated their businesses have revived with the Bulgarian influx, adding that the tourists do the shopping for various kinds of trousers, tracksuits and boots.

Bulgarians, who could not travel to the city because of over-crowdedness at Türkiye’s borders in the summer, are expected to face the natural gas problem as Russia’s Gazprom halted gas flows to the country.

A recent decision on July 27 allowed Bulgarian visitors to stay in the country for a maximum of 90 days on visa-free travel.

The move is designed to attract more tourists from the neighboring country, which will give a boost to the hard currency earnings of Türkiye.

Between January-May, nearly 950,000 Bulgarian nationals visited Türkiye, claiming the second spot on the list of foreign tourists after Germans. Bulgarians accounted for 8.3 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals.

In May alone, nearly 270,000 Bulgarians visited Türkiye.

In the first five months of this year, Edirne welcomed 1.3 million tourists, according to the latest data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.