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The Minister of Tourism outlines her work priorities

The Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova presented Marc Girardelli, a five-time World Cup overall champion in all five alpine disciplines, as her advisor for winter tourism. She also announced to the media the priorities of the separated ministry.

The first focus of our activities will be drawing up a sustainable national strategy on tourism. The purpose of this document is to stimulate sustainable tourism development and to reduce regional disparities by creating strong regional brands. Increasing the specialized types of tourism through advertising in target markets will be also aimed, said Angelkova. Improving the tourism infrastructure will be another important element of the strategy.

The Minister said that the status and structure of the future Tourism Infrastructure and Tourist

Attractions National Fund is currently being discussed together with the industry and the Ministry of Finance. The funds will be allocated for financing the important projects of public infrastructure, which could not be funded thorough other sources - resorts roads, water treatment plants, ecological facilities, sign-plates, and etc. The fund will be launched in 2016.

We are also working on the legal status of national resorts as we have defined measures for equal development of all types of tourism, for which Bulgaria has the potential, added Angelkova. She drew an attention to the best use of European funds and said that  a separate Directorate for programmes and projects will be established in the Ministry for that purpose. The Minister said that due to the cooperation with the Managing Authority in the MRD and the good pace of work, the implementation period of the delayed contracts under OP "Regional Development" has been extended, as the risk of loss of BGN 8 million has been already overcome. For the next programming period, the tourism can count on nearly EUR 1 billion provided by the EU operational programmes or other European programmes. The applications will be submitted on a competitive basis, so the municipalities and businesses should be maximum proactive, recommended the Minister. A manual of EC funding opportunities in the field of tourism will be published on the website of the Ministry: http://www.tourism.government.bg

Our main goal is positioning Bulgaria as recognizable and year-round tourist destination and its transformation into one of the best European tourist destinations, stressed Angelkova. It will be achieved by speeding up the work on the changes in the regulations, whose adoption was also delayed. The Minister said that first two ordinances to the Tourism Act -  an Ordinance on safety and information security on the ski slopes and the regulation for establishing a single system for tourist information (Estia) have been already  submitted to the business for coordination. The national tourist register to the Minister of Tourism is considered as of crucial importance to function as a unified platform for information and to collect the required data base for the sector, including information about the tourist attractions of the country.

A particular analytic unit within the Ministry will be focusing on more detailed analysis of the statistics to target a meaningful planning of marketing and promotional activities, it became clear from the words of Angelkova. She also announced the forthcoming set up of regional tourism departments of the Ministry in the country, including national representatives abroad for target markets, as in Beijing it will be together with Romania and will focus on distant markets.

Marc Girardelli, a five-time World Cup overall champion in all five alpine disciplines and the new  advisor  of Minister Angelkova, recommend a detailed analysis of the current state of  tourist infrastructure and the identification of Bulgaria in terms of domestic and foreign tourists. He highlighted the importance of excellent service to attract well-off clients as well as the activities to improve the security of tourists. The ski legend has been a great friend of Bulgaria for 10 years and will continue to promote worldwide its unique potential not only in mountain tourism, but also as a four season destination.