Ministry of Tourism and the Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria “Shalom” with a common project for a thematic route

Developing a specialized route to promote major Jewish landmarks in the country would build on the Ministry of Tourism's efforts to promote Bulgaria's cultural and historical heritage.

Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and President of the Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria “Shalom” Assoc. Prof. Alexander Oscar joined around this thesis.

The promotion initiative will include key landmarks for the Jewish community in 13 municipalities across the country. It will be a strong sign of respect for the cultural and historical contribution of the Jewish community, as well as a consistent step in efforts to attract more and more tourists, not only from Israel, but also from the compact Jewish communities in Europe and the world that traditionally prefer specialized tourist products.

Israel ranks 11^th in terms of number of inbound tourists in Bulgaria in 2018 (245,000 tourists, or an increase of 17% over the previous year). Only for the first 3 months of this year nearly 45,000 Israel citizens have visited our country (also a 4% increase over the same period in 2018).

Conversations with municipalities to consolidate information on specific sites to attract even more tourist interest to our country in this direction are forthcoming.