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The Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelokova participated today in a round-table discussion in Madrid entitled “Tourism as an Economic Factor”. The event was opened by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain Mariano Rajoy, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism José Manuel Soria, the mayor of Madrid Ana Botella, the President of the autonomous community of Madrid Ignacio González, the Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska and the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization Taleb Rifai.

Minister Nikolina Angelkova participated in the second panel of the event “The Impact of Tourism on the Development of a Country’s Infrastructure” together with the Minister of Tourism for the Kingdom of Morocco Lahcen Haddad, the Minister of the Economy of Portugal Antonio Pires, the Spanish Minister for Public Works Ana Pastor, the chairman of the organizing committee of the International Tourism Fair FITUR, Luis Gallego and the Spanish airline company IBERIA. „The infrastructure serves many sectors of the economy but when we invest in infrastructure for tourism we create greater value added” , said Minister Angelkova. According to the Minister, the tourism sector is a major generator of new jobs and employment; it includes mainly small and medium enterprises and is primarily export-oriented. Hence these investments bring even greater, indirect benefits. The participants in the panel supported her view and agreed that priority should be given to investments in the infrastructure which improve the conditions for tourism.      .

According to Minister Nikolina Angelkova better conditions should be created for regional cooperation in the tourism sector within the European Union, which in turn will improve the compatibility of the European tourist services and their access to perspective distant markets.

During the forum it became clear that in the last year, according to data of the World Tourism Organization, there has been a 14,8% growth in returns in the tourism sector worldwide. Spain registers the greatest growth of 7% which ranks her in 3rd place in terms of tourist visits and 2nd in revenues.

Minister Angelkova is currently on a visit in Spain for the opening of one of the biggest international tourism trade fairs FITUR`2015. The fair will be held from 28th January till 1st February 2015 at the Juan Carlos I Exhibition Center in Madrid.