The Ministry of Tourism welcomed the participants in the first Bulgarian-Chinese Seminar on management of the sector

I am happy today with the start of the first-of-its-kind joint initiative in tourism between the Ministry of Tourism and China’s Ministry of Trade. Thus said Deputy Minister of Tourism, Lyuben Kanchev, upon commencement of the first 2018 Bulgarian-Chinese Seminar on management of the tourism. 25 participants representing municipalities, tertiary institutions, the Ministry of Tourism, and businesses departed on a training seminar in China. The visit is taking place with the support of China’s Ministry of Trade and is fully funded by the Chinese party.

One of our priorities is to attract tourists from remote markets, China being key among such markets. I am convinced that your involvement in that seminar will help you acquire priceless experience and impressions about China and the local tourism market, stated Deputy Minister Kanchev.

The China market is among the top 50 countries for inbound tourism to our country. In the first 4 months of this year Chinese tourists in our country were nearly 4 500, registering an over 3 per cent growth, compared to the same period of last year. In 2017 visits from that distant country were over 26 000, growing by 41.2% compared to a year before.

One initiative of the Ministry of Tourism is to set up a Balkan Tourism Route for remote markets. The idea was put forward during a meeting of EU ministers responsible for tourism, involving 11 countries from the Balkan region.

Deputy Minister Kanchev thanked the Chinese embassy for the attention and help in the arrangement of the seminar and stated his belief that our fruitful partnership will continue going forward.