The new bill on tourism is tabled in Parliament and is expected to be discussed by the MPs on January 11, Bulgarian Deputy Economy Minister Dimitar Hadjinikolov, responsible for tourism said in his address to the participants in the tourism conference “Bulgaria – Dream Area.” According to Hadjinikolov, the existing law was elaborated and adopted under the conditions of a dominating state ownership: over 65% of the tourism assets were owned by the state between 1997-1998. Currently, 95% of the ownership in the sector is private.
Back in 1997-1998 the concept of Eurointegration was mostly a political idea, a purpose about which national consensus was reached. Today, Eurointegration is a daily practice both in the state administration and in the activities of the tourism companies.
This new situation in the sector calls for a radical change of the philosophy of the law. From a law regulating the role of the state as governing ownership, the new law aims to formulate the tasks of the state as an institution regulating the development of the business in a private ownership situation.
According to the Deputy Economy Minister the tasks of the Government set in the bill are:
· To delineate the tasks and responsibilities of the central and local administration stemming from the principle of decentralization of the management, increasing the responsibility and motivation of the regional and local authorities towards tourism development;
· To formulate direct and indirect levers for promotion of tourism development on a national and a regional scale, which will underlie the law on the budget of the country every year, according to the strategy for development of the sector;
· To define clear rules for quality management in tourism, i.e. quality requirements and criteria compliant with the European norms both in terms of hotel and restaurant management and regarding the other tourism activities, touroperators’ activity included;
· To integrate the tourism organizations into the development of tourism in the country, also in the overall quality management process, from licensing to control, and also in the intra-sectoral regulation of the tourism offers, including issues related to price formation and fair competition;
· To set up a new body for management and implementation of the national promotion, which will lead this activity from the narrow administrative framework and place it on a broad public foundation;
· To set up a specialized body controlling the quality of the tourism offers and services.
In its efforts to harmonize the Bulgarian legislation in the sphere of tourism, the Cabinet will aim at introducing a national strategy on the sector’s development to be approved by the Bulgarian Parliament.
According to Hadjinikolov, the new bill on tourism and the national strategy will facilitate “the opening of Bulgaria for tourism” and will help for the revival of the Bulgarian economy in general.
The revenues from the international tourism are expected to reach USD 1,25 – 1,3 BLN in 2002, Hadjinikolov said. Bulgaria is among sixty countries in the world with a annual revenues from tourism over USD 1 BLN. Foreign investment in the sector so far has only been USD 137 M.
Hadjinikolov quoted a forecast of the World Tourism Organization according to which till 2020, Bulgaria will attract 10,6 million tourists per year. In 2000, the number of tourists in Bulgaria reached 2,8 million people.
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