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Deputy Minister Irena Georgieva participated in the 103rd meeting of the Board of Directors of the European Travel Commission
Deputy Minister of Tourism Irena Georgieva participated in the 103rd meeting of the Board of Directors of the European Travel Commission (ETC) The event took place in Engelberg, Switzerland. As part of the Board of Directors, with a mandate until the end of 2023, Bulgaria will take part in solving important subject-matters, issues and problems for the industry, accepting new members, approving the action program and the budget.
The main topic of the discussion during the meeting was “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism in Europe. Measures for its recovery and resilience.” Deputy Minister Georgieva pointed out that the global pandemic is changing the travel attitudes and placing a strong emphasis on human health. This change in tourist demand will continue to affect the tourism product and preferred destinations in the next few years. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to restart tourism in a more sustainable way.
The expectations of a number of analysts are that there will be a change in tourists themselves, highlighting the trend of the tourists who practice “conscious travel”. They will be looking for more safety, less negative impact on the environment and a more personalized, intelligent and maximally contactless product. Deputy Minister Georgieva stressed that it is important to ease the restrictions on travel in Europe, ETC to re-emphasize the promotion of European destinations for European tourists with the message: “Travelling in Europe is interesting, safe and easy.”
