Minister Angelkova meets local tourism businesses in Lovech

When we established the standalone Ministry of Tourism, we put the focus on cultural-historical tourism when advertising the country. The results currently reported by Municipalities such as Lovech reveal that we had taken the right path and that this is the thing to distinguish us on the international market and help us overcome seasonality in the sector. Thus said the Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, during a meeting with tourism businesses in Lovech.

„Lovech Municipality has welcomed some 100 000 tourists for the first 8 months of 2016, which is an 8% compared to the same period of last year“, Minister Angelkova announced. According to her, tourists choose this destination primarily for cultural-historical and knowledge. She stressed that many of the landmark sites in the region are part of the online Registry of Tourist Attractions, which was developed by the Ministry of Tourism and is attracting increasing attention. This is attested by stats from local tourism facilities. For the first 6 months of this year the sites featured in the Regional Museum of History have been visited by over 30 000 visitors. The top location is the Lovech Fortress with 11 651 visitors, followed by the Kakrina Inn (8 734 visitors) and the Vassil Levski museum (7 474 visitors).

„This part of Bulgaria can really develop as a 4-season tourism destination and attract growing numbers of tourists and investors“, the Minister of Tourism added. Significant boost to tourism is also given by the Krushun waterfalls – a large natural attraction the access to which is now restored and improved. The region also contains the Devetashka cave, which is among the largest caves in Bulgaria. „These sites attract hundreds, even thousands of tourists during weekends, while businesses, along with the local government, have to offer them more services to keep them longer in the area“, Minister Angelkova added. She highlighted the fact that the region also contains natural climate resorts such as Ribaritsa, Oreshak, Cherni Osam, Apriltsi, and Beklemeto, which offer an excellent basis to develop medical spa tourism and ecotourism and are capable of providing the accommodation required.

The meeting was also attended by the Lovech Municipality Mayor Cornelia Marinova, the Deputy Mayor Ventsislav Hristov, the Municipal Council chair, Petar Tsolov, the Lovech Regional Governor, Irina Miteva, mayors of settlements in the region and others.