Minister Baltova demands consensus on the Tourism Act issues

The acting Minister of Tourism, Stela Baltova, demands shared consensus among businesses for the resolution of the issue with customer protection regulation via a guarantee fund or a customer account, as stipulated in the Tourism Act bill of amendment. Today she met members of the Management Board of the Association of Bulgarian Tour Operators and Travel Agents (ABTTA). Minister Baltova indicated that it is necessary for the businesses to remedy the issues and propose a shared vision to the next parliament. „I am hopeful that we will have finalized solutions by March“, she said further.

ABTTA identified as an issue the tourism marketing carried out by the Ministry. According to them, it is chaotic and does not target the European market, to name one, where we register growth due to the increased number of low-cost airline flights. The organization’s chair, Bayko Baykov, explained that the government site, bulgariatravel.org, is obsolete and that shutting it down would be better. He recommended that a brand new product be set up instead. ABTTA proposed that market analyses are carried out, instead of just taking stats on the number of tourists. This would mean that there is a vision what tourist are coming, how solvent they are, and whether they return to Bulgaria.

Minister Baltova emphasized that the quality of tourism servicing and tourist services are precisely her priority.