Minister Angelkova had a bilateral meeting with the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Michael Christides

The development of cruise and culinary tourism is crucial for the diversification of tourism in the Black Sea region. It was one of the topics of the conversation between the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Michael Christides. This bilateral meeting was held within the second International congress of world civilizations and historic routes, which has been held since yesterday in Sofia and has been organized by the World Tourism Organizations (WTO) of the UN.

Minister Angelkova and Secretary-General Christides expressed their satisfaction that Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia will work together for the implementation of a project aimed at popularizing culinary tourism in the Black Sea region. The first stage of the project includes collecting statistical data which will present between 250 and 300 dishes typical of the countries in the Black Sea region. The second stage includes the organization of Culinary days in four European capitals of BSEC Member-states. Special events in the sphere of culinary tourism will be organized.

Mr. Christides announced that in 2019, BSEC will participate is a large-scale initiative for popularizing cruise tourism in the Black Sea. The revival of cruise tourism in the Black Sea is one of the main priorities of BSEC.

The two countries also discussed the implementation of a project in the sphere of film tourism. Greece is the project coordinator and Bulgarian will be one of the main partners. Our country has a lot of experience in this tourist sub-sector and is a preferred destination since it is famous for the implementation of large-scale film productions.

Minister Angelkova discussed with Mr. Christides the innovations in the sphere of tourism. They also talked about the possibility to establish “Awards for the best “start up” companies in the sphere of tourism in the BSEC region”. The concept of this project will be developed jointly by the Permanent secretariat of BSEC and a network of universities from the Member-states of the organization, which will later be included in the awards selection committee. It has been planned to launch this initiative in 2019.