In cooperation with Bulgarian municipalities, Ministry of Tourism launches a billboard campaign to promote domestic tourism

The Ministry of Tourism has launched, in cooperation with Bulgarian municipalities, a billboard campaign to promote domestic  tourism. The campaign will cover all major municipalities and will promote tourism opportunities by regions. Advertising visuals will be displayed in central locations on the territory of a given municipality to advertise tourism opportunities offered by another municipality. Thus iconic historical sights of a region will be presented in another. The visuals are with a strong cultural and historical focus and reflect a number of iconic landmarks such as the medieval castle Baba Vida, the archaeological complex Perperikon, the ancient fortress Hisarlaka, the Besarbovski rock monastery, the Alexandrovo tomb, to mention but a few.

The Ministry of Tourism is committed to the development of more than 40 billboards, whereas the municipalities will provide free advertising space in key locations where advertising visuals will be displayed for a period of about six months. With campaign already launched, billboards will be progressively installed in 11 major municipalities, namely Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra, Haskovo, Vidin, Veliko Tarnovo, Burgas, Kardzhali, Gabrovo, Montana and Pernik. Other municipalities will be also included at a later stage.

The initiative is the first of its kind and is a natural continuation of the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism to promote domestic tourism and opportunities for year-round recreation in the country. The campaign aims to raise the awareness of Bulgarians for their country and to diversify the national tourism product. It builds on the results achieved under the completed project "Communication campaign to promote domestic tourism", which managed to reach about 2 million people.

Within the period January-October 2015 the number of overnights spent by Bulgarian citizens in the country exceeds 7 million which represents an increase of 6.2% as compared to the same period of 2014. The number of accommodated Bulgarians was over 2.8 million which is 8.9% more than in 2014, while revenues from their overnight stays amounted to over BGN 260 million, an increase of 6.9% as compared to the same period of the previous year.