The Tourism Directorate of the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism started working Monday in its new location – the southern city of Plovdiv.

The relocation of the tourism section of the Economy Ministry is part of a plan of the Bulgarian government engineered by Finance Minister Simeon Djankov for the "deconcentration" of the institutions of the central government.

The tourism officials have become the first representatives of Bulgaria's central government who have had to leave Sofia under the new plan, part of Bulgaria's administrative reform, which is

supposed to bring about better-functioning decentralization.

The new address of the Tourism Directorate of the Economy Ministry, which used to be an independent State Agency for Tourism before 2009, is 1 Zhelezarska Str., Plovdiv.

A number of civil servants from Bulgarian institutions slated to move to the provinces – such as the Customs Agency which is supposed to be resettled to the Danube city of Ruse – have risen up in protest, not wishing to leave Sofia.

It is still unclear how many state institutions will be relocated away from the capital, the start of the process being with a less high-profile ones.