Minister Nikolina Angelkova and Minister Dario Franceschini initiated new tourist forum

06 July 2015
Minister Nikolina Angelkova and Minister Dario Franceschini initiated new tourist forum

Bulgarian Minister of tourism Nikolina Angelkova together with Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini opened new Bulgarian-Italian tourist forum today in Sofia. The event was organized by the Ministry of tourism, Italian Embassy in Sofia, association Confindustry Bulgaria and the Italian Commerce Chamber in Bulgaria. The opening was also attended by the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova.

“Minister Franceschini and I have agreed to work on the creation of collective tourist routes and products. Both our countries have great national assets we should take advantage of- along with Greece, we are ranked the three richest European countries in terms of number of artifacts” Minister Angelkova said. She stated that Italy is one of our main commerce-historical partners and the development of mutual tourist products would increase the tourist flow for both countries.

For the first 5 months of the joint partnership there has been 14% increase of Italian tourists. And for the last year only, Bulgarian tourist in Italy numbered 126 000, while in Bulgaria there has been 129 000 Italian tourist. “In reality there has been an increase of Italians coming to Bulgaria, but the number of tourist visiting both of the countries can be even greater” Italian Minister added. “We are more than ready to fully cooperate with the newly created Bulgarian Ministry of tourism and Minister Angelkova who is well knowledgeable of Italian language and culture. These combined routes that we intend to develop and of which plan we will propose on our second meeting in Italy this December is to launch more European form of tourism” added Minister Franceschini. He also reminded that Bulgaria has a great advantage – our capital is located in the heart of a mountain region. “You can actually develop winter tourism, here. However, for this to happen you will need to have an adequate infrastructure- and here comes Italy, whose experience you may find very useful” also said Minister Franceschini.

Sofiya Mayor, Yordanka Fandakova stated that Sofia Municipality continuously works on the development of tourism in the capital and will depend on the Italian support and expert opinion in the future.

The forum was attended by Deputy Minister Irena Georgieva, Deputy Mayor of Plovdiv Stefan Stoyanov,  Italian Ambassador in Bulgaria Konticheli Marco, President of the Italian Commerce Chamber in Bulgaria Marco Montecchi, director of “Confindustria Bulgaria”  Roberto Masksali, Chairman of the Restaurant Association Blagoy Ragin, President of "Confindustria Albergen" (Italian hotel association) Giorgio Palmuchi, Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Union of balneology and spa tourism Siyka Katsarova and others.

 

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