Minister Angelkova and the Secretary General of UNWTO discussed joint initiatives

Future joint initiatives between Bulgaria and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) were discussed at a meeting between the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and the Secretary General of the organization Taleb Rifay. The talks took place within the framework of the 22nd General Assembly of UNWTO, which was organized in the Chinese city of Chengtu.

The focus of the talks between Minister Angelkova and the UNWTO Secretary General Rifay was the forthcoming second joint event with the organization in Bulgaria. At the end of 2018, the International Congress of the World Civilizations and Ancient Routes of the UNWTO will be organized in Bulgaria.  “Among the reasons to propose this name for the congress are several important projects and initiatives associated with the current regional and global projects in the economic and political sphere. The project “One Belt, One Road”, whose main focus is the ancient Silk Road, is standing out among the projects and thematically supplemented by the initiative “EU - China - 2018 year of Tourism”.

The International Congress will be the result of the joint work of the Ministry of Tourism and the specialized organization at the UN. “All ministers of tourism of the member states of the UNWTO  will be invited to the event”. We invited the famous CNN anchor Richard Quest to be the moderator of the congress”, the Minister of Tourism added and explained that 2018 is the European year of the cultural heritage, which coincides with the emphasis that we want to put on the cultural-historical tourism.

During the meeting the Minister of Tourism presented data of the positive growth of the tourists in Bulgaria. Nearly 5 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria in the period January - July 2017, which is a growth of 7.2% compared with the same period last year. The total revenues from international tourism in Bulgaria from the beginning of the year until June 2017 amount to 2,4 billion BGN, which is by 12% more compared with the same same period in 2016, which was a record year for the tourism, stressed Minister Angelkova.

Another topic of the conversation between Minister Angelkova and the Secretary General of the UNWTO Mr. Rifay was the problem with the insufficient personnel in the field of tourism, which Bulgaria is facing. “The employees in the sector of tourism form the major part of its product and we put efforts to improve their preparation and training”, said the Minister of Tourism and stressed that the lack of personnel is a problem, whose solving requires active work.