Minister Angelkova held the first workshop meeting with representatives of the industry to discuss the open issues in tourism industry

The newly assigned Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova  discussed the open concerns in the sector and the future structure of the separate department during the first workshop meeting held with the business.Minister Angelkova assured the bussiens that she taken up the post with the seriousness and responsibility of a person who  jointly with the  team will make all efforts to turn  the new deparment into  operating structure as to achieve the target to change Bulgaria into  a year-round tourist destination,which could be achieved through the common efforts on behalf of the  state and the business. That’s way Minister Angelkova highlighted that she will rely on  the active dialogue with the industry.

The representatives of tourism associations and companies acquainted Minister Angelkova  with the issues that  have risen concerns for years  as  the development of the legal framework in the sector, the status of national resorts, the  concession of beaches and ski slopes,  the construction of connecting infrastructure to tourist sites, the security and  rights of services consumers  and many others. The prompt resolution of all issues will turn our country into a preferred tourist destination, the participants in the discussion declared.

Minister  Angelkova asked the industry to nominate a consolidated figure, which will assigned as a deputy minister,   but participants in the meeting came to the conclusion that Angelkova should select her own team. A new meeting of that kind will be held with the industry next week, on which the Minister of Tourism  will present a scheme  regarding the  structure of the Ministry.

Nikolina Angelkova proposed  such discussions to  be fixed every two weeks   in order to quickly and promptly resolve the pending issues.  She pointed out that the Ministry should become really active structure and shared  that it is planned to provide a separate directorate to focus on opportunities to attract additional financial resources through European and other programmes.

My work will be also focused on the future of the tourist attractions, whose form of ownership has to be refined, underlined Angelkova. She emphasized the upcoming efforts to develop all types of tourism, for which Bulgaria has a great potential and stressed that relies on transparency in spending the funds envisaged for national advertising of the country. A discussion with the industry on the delayed regulations is subject to be held as well as the concept for tourism zoning of Bulgaria proposed for a public discussion.

The new Minister of Tourism also announced that will work actively to ease visas to important for our country markets and emphasized on  the need for  development of common tourist products with  other countries in the Balkans and along the Danube. This will fully  reveal the potential of the country as a destination and will improve its image on  the international markets.