Bulgaria to Advertise as Tourist Destination at Madrid Airport

Opportunities to increase cooperation in tourism between Bulgaria and Spain were discussed at meetings held in Madrid between Minister Nikolina Angelkova and the Secretary of State for Tourism Isabel Borrego and the Minister of Development Ana Pastor. Minister Angelkova was on a one-day visit to Madrid on December 10, 2014.

Minister Ana Pastor has proposed options for promotion of Bulgaria in Spain as an opportunity to attract more tourists in the country, it became clear from the words of Minister Angelkova after her meeting with the Minister of Development of Spain. One of these options is to use Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport as a platform for the promotion of our country as a tourist destination. Bulgaria may be advertised by placing the image-visions on railway and bus stations in Spain, as well as on high-speed trains in Spain. The Spanish experience in the development of the package "tourist train", by which tourists are able to make trips intermittently to various tourist sites and cities in Spain within a month only with one ticket for train, was shared during the meeting.

Details of future advertising of Bulgaria as a tourist destination in Spain will be discussed at the meeting of the joint working group on cooperation in tourism, established under the signed in 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Tourism of both countries, which will be held next year. Technical meetings between experts from both countries will be held to exchange information and best practices between institutions and leading tour operators from Bulgaria and Spain, as it was agreed by Minister Angelkova and Secretary of State for Tourism in Spain, Isabel Borrego.

Details of the implementation of strategic tourism practices by Spain and Spain's experience in the use of various mechanisms to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector were also discussed at the meetings.

Minister Angelkova invited   Secretary Borrego and Minister Pastor to participate in the upcoming forum of European Ministers of Tourism, for whose organization Bulgaria has already put a request to the European Commission. The meeting will be the first of its kind and is planned for mid-2015. Secretary Borrego and Minister Pastor accepted the invitation with satisfaction and appreciated the potential of Bulgaria as a year-round destination. Details of the forthcoming participation of our country in the forum "Tourism as an Economic Factor", which will be held on January 27, 2015 in Spain, were also reviewed.