site.btaTourism Minister Meets with EC Officials

Bulgaria is a trustworthy and reliable partner, who can contribute to strengthening security of the Schengen area and Europe, said Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova during a meeting with Hubert Gambs, Director General of the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, quoted by the press office of her ministry. The bilateral meeting took place after an informal meeting of EU ministers in Palma de Majorca. 
 
"Facilitating the visa regime and accepting Bulgaria in Schengen will bring considerable economic, social and cultural benefits and will promote tourist travel. We rely on your support for a full-fledged membership of Schengen," said Minister Dinkova. 

"The European family needs a strong government in Bulgaria. We are confident that the rotational government will bring the necessary stability, because the country is key to the security of EU borders at a time of military conflicts in Ukraine and Israel,” said Hubert Gambs for his part. 

During the meeting the sides also discussed the main challenges to the tourist sector in Bulgaria.  The main one was the drain of highly skilled labour because of the higher pay elsewhere.  

According to Tourism Ministry data, as little as 20% of tourism graduates work in the same field, said Dinkova. "My team is making serious efforts to change this trend in order to stop the loss of skilled labour," she added. To do that a number of measures are needed, including changing the curricula, the working environment and conditions and for that Bulgaria relies on expert help from its European partners.