Nikolina Angelkova and Marc Girardelli visited Perperikon and the Alexander Tomb

The Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and her winter tourism advisor Marc Girardelli – five-time world alpine ski champion visited today the Perperikon archeological complex. Earlier that day they made a tour of the Regional Museum of History in Kardzhali where over 40 000 cultural treasures featuring the history and the natural landscape of the Eastern Rhodope are housed.  

“My country has no such ancient artifacts and it was very important for me to see the unique heritage that Bulgaria boasts”, said Mrc Girardelli. After his tour of the city he promised to come back and visit Kardzhali with his family. “We can become more recognizable in the world through our culture and history. Hence the focus of the country’s tourism promotional campaign for next year is cultural and historical heritage”, noted Minister Angelkova.

“We’ve developed cultural and historical routes that we can promote abroad. The goal is to promote the less known tourist sites and when tourists come, for example, in the Eastern Rhodope region to visit Perperikon they would be informed about other attractions as well”, said Minister Angelkova. She said that historical sites in the region are included in the “Down the Memory Lane of Thracians” tourist route which is uploaded on the site of the Ministry of Tourism.

The Minister thinks that special attention should be paid to Bulgarian tourists who want to travel and to get to know their country. “Together with the local authorities we’ll be launching a campaign for encouraging interior tourism”, she announced. The goal is to promote tourist sites in Bulgaria in succession and through open-space advertising  (billboards etc.). “Municipalities will provide free promotional spaces and we will design the image and the slogan of the campaign. Thus, Kardzhali, for example will be advertised in Varna and the vice versa and the realization of this project will be very cost effective”, explained Minister Angelkova. This, according to the Minister, will contribute to stimulating interior tourism because every consumer will be able with just one click to get information on the location, the accessibility and the general condition of the specific tourist attraction.

Later that day Minister Angelkova and the five-time world champion Marc Girardelli visited Haskovo where they met with Dimitar Dimitrov – the father of Bulgaria’s best tennis player Grigor Dimitrov. “It is an honour for me to be introduced to the father of one of the best Bulgarian sportsman”, said Marc Girardelli. He added that the kids he sees playing tennis on the courts in Haskovo are the country’s biggest hope and that he hopes that soon one of these kids will surpass the achievements of the Bulgarian tennis player.  “The world fame of Grigor Dimitrov is a chance to make Bulgaria known to an ever greater number of people and to make them learn about our country’s unique nature and history”, said Minister Angelkova.

The officials also visited the Alexander Tomb in the Haskovo municipality. This unique tourist attractions has been visited by about 12 000 people in 2014 and as the Museum center “Thracian Art in the Eastern Rhodope” which was launched in 2009 is located in close proximity to it.