Minister Angelkovatook part in the 8th meeting of tourism ministers in the Along the Silk Road program in Berlin

The historical Silk Road connects the two biggest economic powers and ancient cultures – Europe and China. Nowadays we are working actively to develop new initiatives and projects in that framework, in close cooperationwith UN’s World Tourism Organization (WTO), institutions, private organizations and NGO’s, and the academia. This was stated bythe Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, at the 8^thmeeting of tourism ministers in the Along the Silk Road program of UNWTO, which was held during the ITB international exhibition in Berlin.

Minister Angelkova notes that Bulgaria is chairing the EU Council for the first 6 months of 2018. During the informal meeting of the EU tourism ministers in Sofia the idea was put forward to set up a Map of the 100 European Tourism Sites, making use of the Bulgarian experience with the Map of the 100 national tourism sites. The forum also had a special panel dedicated to the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year initiative, where forecasts and perspectives in the mutual relations were discussed.

One of the priorities is to promote Bulgariaas a competitive year-round destinationnot only in Europe but also on remote markets, such as China, the Minister said further. As regards the Chinese market, Bulgaria registered a huge spike of over 41% in 2017. We are actively working to promoteour countryon the Chinese market, thus, in September 2017 Bulgaria’s first tourism informationcentre was opened in Shanghai, she added.

Nikolina Angelkova commented further that our country will be hosting the 7^th summit meeting of state- and government leaders of the Central and Eastern European countries and China during the second half of 2018. Therefore, arrangement of a summit Forum on Tourismis being planned during that meeting. The event is within the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year initiative and will be a new opportunity for dialogue among institutions, businesses, the research community, and NGO’s on tourism cooperation.

She noted that active work is carried out with Greece to create joint tourism products and trans-national itineraries targeting potential visitors from remote markets. There are plans to develop such cooperation with Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, and Montenegro.

Minister Angelkova noted that last year the Ministry was also heavily involved in the UNWTO’s initiative to develop the so-called Western Silk Road. In June 2017 the Ministry hosted jointly with UNWTO the Second international seminar entitled Along the Western Silk Road. Within the Improving the Understanding of European Tourism project, which was developed by UNWTO in cooperation with the European Commission, the event underlying the significance of setting up stand alone tourism routes along the Western Silk Road. Bulgaria will host the International Congress on World Civilizations and Ancient Routes in November this year, announced Minister Angelkova. It is being organized jointly by UNWTO the Ministry of Tourismand will focus on the significance of the concept of ancient routes as effective links among peoples, civilizations, and cultures. The Silk Road is another opportunity to revive the ancient routes as a concept, which is based on mutual knowledge and benefit, summarized the Bulgarian minister.