Friedrich Niemann is General Manager of Hilton Sofia and Board Chairman of the recently established Bulgarian Convention and Visitors Bureau. He has been General Manager of international first-class and deluxe hotels in Leipzig, Munich and Sofia since 1996. He has eight years of professional experience in various Sales and Marketing functions with international hotel companies (Inter-Continental Hotels, Althoff Hotels, Kempinski Hotels and Resorts). Mr Niemann is Board member of Rotary Club Munich, Chaine des Rotisseurs, member of AmCham Bulgaria, Board Member of BBLF. Fluent in English, basic knowledge in Spanish and French, beginner in Bulgarian.
Friedrich Niemann answered questions of Novinite.com Editor-in-Chief Milena Hristova
Q: Which are Bulgaria's top advantages as a meeting and convention destination?
A: Bulgaria offers a broad variety of USP's, so called Unique Selling Propositions. The country is ideally located at the crossroads between the Middle East and Europe and thus can serve two regions; Bulgarians are extraordinary and very friendly and hospitable people and Bulgaria has a stunning landscape. Another advantage, which is even more crucial for any Convention Organizer: there are excellent hotels, good flight connections with international airlines to the major cities in Europe and a perfect entertainment industry. Last but not least Bulgaria offers good convention facilities in the hotels or Convention Centers, like the National Palace of Culture in Sofia - the largest Convention hall in Southeastern Europe.
Another underestimated advantage for Bulgaria is the fact that the international convention scene is curious about the country, since they literally don't know anything about it and its facilities! This is a gigantic opportunity for Bulgaria.
Q: The practices of which countries served as an example for the establishment of the Bulgarian Convention and Visitors Bureau (BCVB)?
A: My colleagues from the other international five star hotels in Sofia and myself, we all have worked in different countries where Convention Bureaus are common practice since decades. Being German myself, one of my benchmarks is certainly the German Convention Bureau (GCB), but we find similar structures in nearly all countries all over Europe, including nearly all other Eastern European countries, like Croatia, Hungary or Romania. The structure is basically everywhere the same: the initiative begins with the private sector, e.g. with hotels, destination management companies or convention centers and is soon supported - ideally and financially - by the government.
Q: Who are its founders?
A: BCVB is extremely fond that we could assemble a thorough number of professionals in the field of tourism, communication and conventions to start this endeavor. BCVB has been founded by the Chairman of the Sofia Tourism Council, Mr. Roumen Draganov, by the General Managers of the four leading international hotels in Sofia, which are representing SHA, Sofia Hotel Alliance: Mr. Josef Halbherr, General Manager of Kempinski Hotel Zografski, Mr. John Grieg, General Manager of Radisson SAS Grand Hotel, Mr. Emmanouil Matsakis, General Manager of Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan and myself as General Manager of Hilton Sofia. At the same token we are proud that Mr. Konstantin Taskov, CEO of Bulgaria Air, Mr. Christo Drumev, General Manager of the National Palace of Culture, Mrs. Donka Sokolova, Chairperson of BATA, the Bulgarian Association of Travel Agents and Mr. Maxim Behar, CEO of M3 Communications are BCVB's founders.
In addition we are extremely enthusiastic that BCVB is strongly supported by the Ministry of Economy, namely Deputy Minister Hadjinikolov and Sofia Municipality, Mayor Stefan Sofijanski.
Q: How much does Europe know about Bulgaria and the development of its convention business?
A: A lot has been done in recent years to promote Bulgaria successfully as holiday destination in the summer and also the winter. The dramatically increasing figures give a clear indication. On the downside however, Bulgaria is absolutely unknown as convention or meeting destination. To underline this opportunity, I would like to share some data with you, prepared by the WTO, the World Tourism Organization. During the whole year 2000, literally 2.000 convention visitors came to Bulgaria, whereby Romania was host to 116.000 and Hungary even to 451.000 visitors.
Unfortunately, to our knowledge this trend has not changed since. However, this is a huge challenge for Bulgaria and its economy!
Q: How well developed is this business in comparison with Bulgaria's neighbors and other Eastern European countries?
A: As mentioned before, Bulgaria has not that much experience with conventions, so one literally can say that it is not developed at all. But, the infrastructure is here, the hotels are excellent, the flight connections are improving constantly - especially with the current enlargement of the network of Bulgari@air, the cultural and natural attractions can easily compete with our neighbors. On the other side investment is urgently necessary, especially for places like the National Palace of Culture, the roads and the airports, which still are in a poor condition.
Q: How does BCVB plan to promote and market the country as a convention and incentive venue?
A: First of all - as stated already - BCVB will create awareness for Bulgaria within the potential convention organizers. Once this has been achieved, BCVB will provide support and logistics for event planning and research, e.g. for event locations, BCVB will prepare tailor made offers for interested event planners and consult and support these during the planning of events. To inform potential business partners, we will create and develop the respective collateral and information material as well as the website www.bcvb.bg.
We will organize site inspections for potential organizers, participate at major trade shows focusing on the convention market (e.g. ITB, IMEX, EIBTM, Confex), organize roadshows and workshops.
Q: What will be the mechanism that will turn this initiative into a working organization?
A: This is a very serious point! BCVB is only an initiative, it is not a company. The core mechanism to its success will be the coordination of all entities engaged in this business. We have to utilize synergies and it does absolutely make no sense, if individual interests play a stronger role than the core objective: creating Bulgaria as a convention destination and thus producing a significant impact on the country's economic development.
Send to Kindle
Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (novinite.com)
