site.btaTourism Minister: Bulgaria Should Be Associated with its Rich Cultural Heritage

London/Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - It is of exceptional importance that Bulgaria start to be associated mainly with its rich cultural and historical heritage, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova said at a discussion on cultural and historical tourism in London, as quoted by her ministry Tuesday. She went on to say that over 40,000 artifacts have been found in this country, which places Bulgaria third in Europe for this type of heritage.

The discussion was organized by "National Geographic" jointly with "The Times", "Sunday Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" within the World Trade Market (WTM) London International Tourism Exhibition.

Angelkova put an emphasis on her ministry's single interactive platform with a mobile application I Love Bulgaria, which combines all elements of the tourism sector: tourist sights, accommodation, restaurants, related services, etc. The platform also includes the 100 national tourist sights along with new attractions in the country's regions. By scanning a given QR code, tourists can obtain information on the corresponding attraction and see its 3D image.

Angelkova explained that her ministry has prepared eight cultural and historical destinations, which are available on the ministry's website and provide information on all cultural and historical sights in a given destination.

She underscored that Bulgaria has huge potential to develop not only traditional and mass types of tourism, such as summer and winter tourism, but also many other specialized services in this sector, such as cultural, balneological, wellness, eco-, rural, adventure, hunting, and golf tourism. Sports and culinary tourism are among the new forms of tourism that also attract many visitors, Angelkova said. For example, there is strong interest in the FIS Snowboard World Cup to be hosted for a second time by the Bansko ski resort in January 2018, she added.

Angelkova went on to say that the latest project of the Tourism Ministry is related precisely to culinary tourism, and will be implemented jointly with the Agriculture, Food and Forestry Ministry. As part of the project, twelve wine and culinary destinations will be prepared covering the country's territory and featuring traditional food and drinks and nearby tourist sights. The destinations are being discussed by the local authorities and branch organizations, and are expected to be finalized by mid-2018 and digitalized afterwards, Angelkova said at the discussion.