Negotiations Continue For Opening of Burgas-Istanbul Sea Line

Jerusalem, 14 May, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Burgas (BTA) – Negotiations are continuing with the Turkish shipping company IDO for the opening of the regular sea line between Burgas and Istanbul with a high-speed passenger catamaran – an initiative of the Burgas Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose chairman is Todor Demirkov, and the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. This was stated to BTA by the tour operator “Real Advance” OOD, which is partnering with the shipowner.

At this point, the negotiations have not been completed, but the plans are for the first sailing on the line to be made at the end of June this year, the company specified.

If the negotiations are successful, the routes from Burgas to the Turkish metropolis will be operated three times a week. However, visa restrictions for Turkish citizens are proving to be a major obstacle to the faster opening of the sea line, but hard work is being done to resolve this issue, Real Advance said.

The company noted that in October, a demonstration tour was organized with a ship of the Turkish company, which, however, did not take place due to bad weather forecasts. Real Advance revealed that the interest in the sea line was extremely high, with 350 tickets sold in just one week.

At the end of April, Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Tourism Pavlin Petrov announced in Burgas that an interdepartmental working group had been established to seek a solution to facilitate the issuance of 72-hour visas for tourists from third countries. Petrov said that the group had held two meetings. The issue was also raised with the Prime Minister and the regional minister, commented the mayor of Pomorie Ivan Aleksiev during the forum “Brand Burgas – European Capital of Culture”.

The initiative to open a sea line between Bulgaria and Turkey was announced by the local government and business back in 2019. However, work on its implementation was hindered by the COVID pandemic.