site.btaTourism Ministry to Advertise Little-Known Bulgarian Tourist Sights

Tourism Ministry to Advertise Little-Known Bulgarian Tourist Sights


Sofia, January 26 (BTA) - The Tourism Ministry will advertise 50
little-known Bulgarian tourist sights within a communication
campaign, which Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova presented at
a news conference Monday. The communication campaign is part of
a project worth 1.9 million leva provided by Operational
Programme Regional Development and aimed at promoting domestic
tourism.

The project was signed in October 2014 and will be implemented
within 10 months. A video will be shot for each of the 50
sights, which will be advertised on three national TV channels,
within a tourism programme on one of these channels and in
printed publications. A website will also be created -
www.myastoto.bg - with information on all the sights and space
for comments by Bulgarian tourists, the agency implementing the
project said.

According to the results of preliminary surveys, 83 per cent of
the respondents would like to visit the sights and 61 per cent
intend to spend their holiday in the country.

Speaking at the news conference, Minister Angelkova said that
her team expects a drop in the number of Russian and Ukrainian
tourists in Bulgaria. According to preliminary calculations, the
drop could be two-fold compared to last year's, she specified.


The Tourism Ministry's analyses are based on last year's
decrease by 3.2 per cent in the number of Russian tourists
(around 21,000 persons less) and by 8.2 per cent in the number
of Ukrainian tourists (around 56,000 persons less) compared to
2013, Angelkova said. Taking a question, she confirmed that the
tourism market is affected by the drop in the Russian rouble's
value.

The measures undertaken by the Tourism Ministry for the
reduction of the negative effects on Bulgarian tourism include
active advertising of the tourism market in January-February
aimed at increasing summer bookings. This is exactly what the
representatives of tour operators requested at their meeting
with the Tourism Minister on Monday, Angelkova said.

She noted that her ministry will seek ways to compensate for the
drop in the number of Russian and Ukrainian tourists by
increasing the number of Bulgarians spending their holiday in
the country and the tourist flow from countries that are
traditional for the Bulgarian market: Germany, the UK,
Scandinavian countries and the neighbouring states.

Angelkova said that the Tourism Ministry is holding talks with
charter companies but also with the European Commission's
Directorate-General for Competition so as to specify what the
State can do that does not qualify as state aid.

PK/DS



/СН/