Minister Dimitrov: The Ministry of Tourism to Hold Roadshow in UK and Israel
A series of working bilateral meetings with the business sector, or the so-called. ‘roadshow’ in the UK and Israel is to be held, in connection with the next summer tourist season, announced Minister Ilin Dimitrov during the annual meeting of the National Tourism Board within the 39 edition of the International Tourism Exhibition ‘Holiday & SPA EXPO 2023’. The meeting was held in the format of a discussion on: ‘New challenges for the tourism sector and solutions through public-private partnership’ and is organized with the partnership of the Ministry of Tourism.
‘We asked the branch organisations what should the priorities in the second term of the caretaker government be and the majority pointed out that these are more advertising of tourism and overcoming the problem with the staff. Where we have indications that there is a problem, we will react very quickly so that we can help the business,’ Minister Dimitrov said.
He pointed out that the tourism sector is changing, businesses know best how to advertise and steps have been taken to cooperate as actively as possible with the industry. ‘After the successful holding of a series of bilateral business meetings between German and Bulgarian representatives of the tourism sector, the Ministry of Tourism will also hold a roadshow in Israel and the UK, where there is a decline in tourists, so we need to be active,’ the Minister said.
According to him, the Ministry of Tourism is changing its policy and focusing its efforts on nearby markets that are in the same geopolitical situation. The forecast is for growth of Bulgarian tourism in the coming years after the geopolitical situation calms down.
Minister Dimitrov described the offered tourist product as more than good. Over 450 thousand more registrations in 2022 of Bulgarian tourists compared to 2019, despite the possibility of free travel after the fall of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We need to enforce a positive way of talking about our product because that is key for us,’ the Minister emphasised.
The Minister also announced a new opportunity to support tourism businesses to build new self-consumption RES in combination with local energy storage facilities at businesses under the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan. Tourism businesses will be prioritised when applying for the funds.
The Minister also commented on the upcoming summer tourist season, reporting good rates of early holiday bookings. ‘For Germany, an increase of 30 percent was announced, but we still cannot catch up with the big decline,’ the minister said and expressed hope that this would be overcome with more advertising activities.
During the meeting best practices and protection of consumer rights and security in tourism were discussed as well as methods for assessing consumer satisfaction, presentation of a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, the Commission for Consumer Protection and the National Tourism Board.