Bulgaria to Spend BGN 5.5 M on Advertising Tourism in 2015

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has presented plans to emphasize cultural and historical routes as a key point in the advertisement of Bulgaria as a tourist destination.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday after the first sitting of the National Tourism Board for 2015, she noted that winter tourism and ski runs in Bulgarian resorts attracted high-end tourists, while Bulgarian Black Sea resorts were attractive to the so-called common type of tourist aged 25-40 or 55+.

Angelkova, as cited by money.bg, boasted that the reform program in the sector for 2015 had been scheduled for adoption in January, while the concept for 2016 was to be drafted in June.

She emphasized that the summer of 2015 would be very difficult and a decrease in the number of Russian and Ukrainian tourists was expected.

Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister told journalists that talks were underway with representatives of major tour operators that had charter programs, adding that the authorities would seek to attract more tourists from other countries.

Angelkova informed that the Tourism Ministry would team up with the Cultural Ministry to outline cultural and historical routes such as  „The Trail of the Roman Emperors“, “The Trail of Thracian Kings”, “The Valley of Roses Route”, etc., that would be prominent points in advertisements of Bulgaria as a tourist destination.

She specified that Bulgaria’s advertising budget for 2015 amounted to BGN 5.5 M.

She made clear that the National Tourism Board had discussed target market, including all of Bulgaria’s neighbor countries and countries such as Germany, UK, Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Poland, as well as far-off markets such as China, India, Indonesia, and Japan.

She also said that a concept for tourist regions had been presented during Tuesday’s meeting, which had been developed for over 50 years in different formats, under which 9 tourist regions were to be established, including Danube, Sofia, Stara Planina, Rila-Pirin, Valley of Roses, Rhodope Mountains, Thrace, Northern Black Sea Coast, and Southern Black Sea Coast.

Angelkova pointed out that the management of these 9 tourism regions would be assigned to organizations that were yet to be created.

She added that that the Tourism Act described these entities as volunteer-type organizations created by a minimum of 4 municipalities from one region and 2 tourist associations.

Angelkova suggested that the aim behind the establishment of tourist regions was to generate regional marketing and ensure a closer connection between the state and the municipalities.

She also made clear that the 9 tourism regions could be beneficiaries under EU operational programs.

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