Minister Angelkova organizes a meeting to coordinate the efforts for promoting tourism opportunities in the Rose Valley

According to marketing surveys for our leading tourism markets, the rose is one of the symbols that foreigners most often associate Bulgaria with. We need to unite the efforts of all stakeholders in this process in order to make this region even more popular and assert it as one of the most visited tourist destinations. Thus said Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova during a meeting with representatives of the tourism trade, rose producers, and mayors from the Rose Valley area dedicated to coordinating efforts for promotion of tourism in the region.

„We now have the natural hub – the new Rose Museum”, Minister Angelkova indicated. The government disbursed BGN            1 mil. for its construction, and since its opening, the growth in visits to the venue has been 47%. „We have the basis to build on – each year the Rose Festival welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourist and attracts the attention of both remote markets (Japan, China, etc.), and the European ones as well“, Nikolina Angelkova added. According to her, Kazanlak Municipality alone has welcomed over 220 000 tourists, with accurate data for the region not available, as during the Rose Festival tourists find accommodation in hotels within a 100 km. radius.

„As an administration, we want to support the region and establish it as one of Bulgarian tourism’s symbols. This is precisely the reason why one of the eight cultural-historical destinations developed by the Ministry – The Valley of Roses and Thracian Kings – is entirely concentrated in the region the Minister of Tourism announced.

According to the Bulgaria Tourism Regionalization Concept, one of the nine marketing tourism zones also covers the Rose Valley and bears that name. The region is also known as The Valley of Thracian Kings. There are more than 200 tourist attractions here as well, which are included in the Ministry of Tourism’s online registry.

Responding to a question, Minister Angelkova announced that since the year’s start our country has been visited by some 2 mil. foreign tourists, the growth being nearly 14% compared to last year’s same period. Over 4.6 mil. overnight stays in the country have been registered, generating nearly BGN 190 mil. revenues (13.5% growth).

Today’s discussion was hosted by Galina Stoyanova, mayor of Kazanlak Municipality, who emphasized that it was the first time for a meeting in such format to be initiated. „Rose production can be the basis for development of tourism in the region. It is probably the first time that these people have met and had the opportunity to discuss how we can develop the region", she indicated.

The meeting was attended by the mayors of Sopot Municipality and Nikolaevo Municipality – Deyan Doynov and Kosyo Krastev, the deputy mayor of Pavel Banya Municipality – Yordana Eneva, and others.