Minister Angelkova to the Tourism Council: In partnership with the business and municipalities, we raise the quality of tourism and attract higher-class visitors

I welcome the efforts of all of you, of the business and the local authorities, which have helped to increase the quality of the Bulgarian tourist product, and so Bulgaria reported a higher class of visitors. This was announced by the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelova at the next meeting of the National Tourism Council (NTC) in Pamporovo resort.

She drew attention to the active work of the tourism administration to attract more investment in the sector - both of recognizable brands and investments to meet the increased needs of holidaymakers. Our analyses show that the 4- and 5-star hotels were mostly occupied in Bulgaria, and the same for the summer of 2018 were almost entirely booked yet at the end of the last active season, the Minister said. She pointed out that in the year 2017 the overnight guests in 4- and 5-star hotels in the country total more than 3.7 million, which is a 5.5% growth, and the revenues from the overnight stays total more than BGN 919 million (a 12% increase compared to that for 2016).

We are working on an extremely important topic - the creation of a Unified Tourist Information System (UTIS), which will link online via protected channels and in real time hotel booking systems with the databases of the Ministry of Interior, the National Revenue Agency, the Ministry and this will not only increase the security of the tourists but will also enlighten the sector, Minister Angelkova said. We had almost a year and a half for appealing against the procurement procedure, but we have already overtaken this stage. Seven Tenderers have submitted their tenders and the following year we hope the system will be launched. With the amendments to the Law on Tourism (LT) we reduced the administrative burden and when it comes into force there will be a change in the regulations, especially for categorization and re-categorization of the places of accommodation, the Minister Angelkova said.

She warned that also this summer the control on the part of the Ministry will be increased. You know that we deleted in the National Tourist Register and ceased the activity of 116 tour operators and tourist agents for violations. We will be zero-tolerant when implementing the Ordinance on categorization and re-categorization, in order to prevent instances of violated rights of users, the Minister was definite.

As far as electronization is concerned, she expressed her confidence that by the end of the year electronic documents could be submitted to the department for categorization and re-categorization of the sites. A QR code will also be introduced which will inform users about a tour operator or hotel, referring to their details in the National Tourist Register. We place a great emphasis on the digitization of tourism, which is a leading component of the Bulgaria's marketing and advertising as a four-season destination. In this sense, it is important for each region to show its strong tourist destinations. Three tourist regions have already been set up, five more are to be established, she said.

The Mayor of the municipality of Smolyan - Nikolay Melemov also welcomed the participants in the NTC and thanked Minister Angelkova and her team for the efforts to develop tourism in the Pamporovo area. He said that for the last year the number of foreign tourists in the resort is nearly 85 thousand, while the total income from the overnight stays of Bulgarians and foreigners amounts to over BGN 15.3 million, which is nearly a 25% growth. Tourism is a sphere in which, if the efforts are not united, there is no way forward. That's why the results here are so good because we work together with the state, he added.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the tourism business, mayors, members of public and non-governmental organizations.