The Ministers of Tourism, Culture and Agriculture discussed common actions for the promotion of Brand Bulgaria and the creation of a unified digital destination guide for Bulgaria

Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov, PhD, Minister of Culture Prof. Velislav Minekov and Minister of Agriculture Yavor Gechev agreed on the creation of a common strategy and a common platform for the promotion of Brand Bulgaria at a working meeting hosted by the Minister of Culture. Deputy Ministers of Culture Plamen Slavov and Agriculture Georgi Sabev also took part in the discussion. 

As part of the immediate work on the united actions of the three ministries is the creation of a single digital guide that will welcome everyone who enters our country – an electronic map of Bulgaria. It will bring together various elements of the tourism service and product – such as cultural and wine routes, farmers’ markets, developing local communities, significant natural sites and landmarks of our cultural and historical heritage that are of interest to every visitor to the destination.

A drop-down menu on the map will integrate a variety of features and options to access more information to allow easy planning of short visits – transport connectivity, making reservations, purchasing via QR code tickets for museums, galleries, concerts and various events, virtual video tours prepared by tour guides or bloggers, photographers and travelers, and many more options that can be built upon over time and in the longer term. In addition to the three ministries, various institutions and the public media will be involved in the project.                

Ministers of Tourism, Culture and Agriculture Ilin Dimitrov, prof. Minekov and Yavor Gechev discussed how to present destination Bulgaria through the map in the best, effective and attractive way. Minister Gechev suggested that traditional foods and Bulgarian wines with protected designations of origin, which often coincide with the names of places, should be included in the map. They will also include products that, according to the idea of the Ministry of Agriculture, will be branded as monastic and with the identification of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. This, in turn, could become a huge magnet for attracting tourists and regional development, as according to the Ministry of Agriculture, demand for traditional local food is an extremely stable trend in Bulgaria.

In continuation of previous talks, the ministers also discussed the unification and branding of protocol gifts - specially labelled, typical for Bulgaria wine, replicas of ancient Thracian treasures and other valuable artifacts from our lands, the oldest processed gold in the world - the Varna gold treasure, etc., which will represent the rich cultural and historical heritage of our country.

Replicas of these remarkable objects, as well as images of cultural tangible and intangible heritage sites under the auspices of UNESCO, will also greet guests at our international airports. That was an idea that Minister Dimitrov presented to his colleagues after it was discussed earlier with the airport operators of Sofia, Varna and Burgas airports.

 The Ministry of Culture is preparing a catalogue of the 100 national sites, which will also be integrated into the idea of promoting brand Bulgaria.

The ministers also agreed to create a common, richly illustrated calendar for 2023, which will present different aspects of Bulgaria’s wealth - the most visited destinations, natural and tourist attractions, museums and cultural and historical artifacts, national parks, forests, hunting tourism opportunities, wine routes and gastronomy. The idea is to make the calendar trilingual to cover the linguistic diversity of all countries - Bulgarian, English and Spanish.