The Ministry of Tourism held a national meeting with representatives of the EDEN network in Bulgaria

The first national meeting with representatives of the best EDEN destinations in Bulgaria was held. The event was organised by the Ministry of Tourism within the project ‘Communication Campaign to Promote Bulgarian EDEN Destinations – Second Edition’, financed under the COSME 2014 – 2020 Programme. On the part of the EDEN destinations, the event was joined by representatives of the municipalities of Belogradchik, Kardzhali, Kazanlak, Sapareva Banya, Kavarna, Vratsa, Belitsa, Kyustendil and Lukovit.

‘The idea of the meeting is to present the objectives and the forthcoming activities at the beginning of the project implementation, as well as to identify expectations and ideas of good iperformance on the part of the EDEN destinations. What matters to us is to work in partnership in order to achieve a result that is of high quality and sustainable in time’, emphasised Milka Nanova, Director of Programmes and Projects in Tourism Directorate at the Ministry of Tourism.

During the meeting, the participants discussed Ideas, variants and possibilities for organising and conducting cognitive tours around interesting tourist sites in the territory of the Bulgarian EDEN destinations, which would arouse greatest foreign interest. Subjects of discussion were also events and festivals of tourist interest, which are carried out annually or have been planned for 2016 and 2017 in the destinations that are planned to be popularised through the project, too.

During the meeting it became clear that it was also planned to shoot videos and make printed materials about the EDEN destinations. A part of the project will be also a facebook game on the topic ‘My EDEN Destination’, which will give chance to children all over the country to take part with drawings and the best ones will be put on postcards or magnets which are to be made under the project and which are expected to additionally popularise the destinations.

As a result of the meeting, the representatives of the EDEN destinations declared their readiness to participate actively in the entire process of the project implementation and shared good practices from their work on popularising tourism in the territory of their regions.

EDEN is an acronym for European Destinations of ExcelleNce (the best European destinations) and it is an initiative popularising the models of sustainable development of tourism throughout the European Union.

The project ‘Communication Campaign to Popularise the Bulgarian EDEN Destinations – Second Edition’ amounts to nearly 70 thousand Euros and it is financed under the COSME Programme (the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) 2014 – 2020 of the European Commission. Its duration is 18 months and the common goal is to promote the best Bulgarian destinations (EDEN Bulgaria) at national and selected tourist markets, as well as to raise the awareness and understanding of the EDEN initiative and the principles of sustainable development. The project aims at upgrading and developing further a project on the same topic, implemented during the period of 2011 – 2012. Its main goal is to promote the Bulgarian EDEN destinations at national and foreign tourist markets.  Some of these destinations are: Silistra, Lukovit, Sandanski, Kyustendil, Belogradchik, Belitsa, Sapareva Banya, Kavarna, Vratsa, Strandzha, Kazanlak and Kardzhali.