Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister Plans Focus on Advertisement, Sustainable Development in 2015

Business » TOURISM | November 27, 2014, Thursday // 11:24
Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister Plans Focus on Advertisement, Sustainable Development in 2015 Bulgaria's Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova, photo by BGNES

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has said that the major portion of funding in 2015 would be allocated to advertisement and measures targeting the sustainable development of the sector.

In a Thursday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, she said that talks were underway with industry representatives on the allocation of funding for national advertisement for 2015, adding that the placement of the ads and the concrete promotional activities were being specified.

Angelkova noted that a portion of the funding would be spent on measures aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of tourism, including adopting changes to regulations and processing analyses and forecasts.

She went on to present details about the structure of the new Tourism Ministry, stressing that it had a total headcount of 120 and it would most probably move to the building of the former Ministry of Investment Planning.

Angelkova made clear that the main administrative building would be in Sofia, adding that the directorates that had been moved to Plovdiv would not be closed or returned to the capital.

She also said that there was a huge delay in the absorption of EU funds for tourism.

“Over the past year and a half, there has been a huge delay in the absorption of EU funds for tourism, especially under operational program Regional Development. We risk losing some BGN 8 M and by 2015 we have to absorb BGN 20 M,” she stated.

Angelkova specified the countries with which Bulgaria was in talks for simplifying the visa regime.

“We have started talks with Turkey, Russia, China, India and other non-EU countries which are targeted markets for us. We will hold a working meeting on Turkey on Monday and we will also focus on the winter season,” she informed.

She said an inspection of the preparedness of ski resorts for the winter season would start next week.

She recommended consolidation in the sector, adding that it had to be achieved through dialogue with the companies.

Angelkova also backed a restructuring of the National Tourism Council.

Commenting on fears of people living in Velingrad that the wolfram mining concession posed a threat to tourism and organic farming, she said that if the activities were found to be harmful to these spheres, they would not be backed by the Tourism Ministry.

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Tags: tourism ministry, Nikolina Angelkova, EU funds, National Tourism Council, Velingrad

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