Neophron Tours is a licensed tour operator and travel agent, which in recent years has established itself as one of the leading companies in the field of nature travel and ecotourism in Bulgaria. The company organizes various tours for nature lovers throughout the country, as its main specialty are the birdwatching tours, wildlife and natural history tours, botanical tours and tours with an emphasis on the cultural and historical heritage of the country. Until the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the main revenues of the company were generated by incoming tourism. In the conditions of a pandemic, there were significant changes in the expectations and the realization of tours booked for 2020. From March 2020 onwards the number of canceled flights, respectively the canceled tours, began to increase very quickly and reached 90% of the previously booked ones.

To answer the urgent need for operative capital has been identified for activities needed to address the shortage of funds to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism launched a program to support SMEs registered in line with the Tourism Act as tour operator or travel agent. As a result Neophron Tours received the amount of 5 712, 81 BGN, of which 4 855,89 BGN is European (85%) and 856,92 BGN is national co-funding (15%).

Тhe goal of this project (BG16RFOP002- 2.092-0433-C01) is diversifying the offered tourist packages, including the use of basic tourist services for inbound tourism in the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as expanding the target groups to which they are aimed, together with developing new tourist packages that cover more diverse activities and are applicable during most of the year.

The project selection procedure worth BGN 10 million, BG16RFOP002-2.092 “Support to enterprises registered under the Tourism Act as a tour operator or travel agent to overcome the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic” is carried out within the project BG16RFOP002- 2.080-0003-C01, implemented by the Ministry of Tourism as a direct beneficiary of the EU Operational Program “Innovations and Competitiveness” 2014 – 2020.