site.btaBulgaria’s Creative Industries Sector Booms, with Sofia Leading the Way in Economic Impact

A Balkan conference on creative industries opened at the Toplocentrala Centre for Contemporary Arts in Sofia on Friday. The CreaTech Summit South-East Europe got underway in the presence of Bulgaria's Deputy Innovation and Growth Minister Martin Danovski, Deputy Tourism Minister Pavlin Petrov and Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) Executive Director Boyko Takov.

Some 600 delegates from 16 countries took part in this third instalment of the conference organized by CreaTech Bulgaria with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, BSMEPA and Advantage Austria, the trade promotion organization of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.

More than 60 speakers discussed the role of the creative sectors in promoting economic development and innovation and their impact on society.

Bulgaria is among the countries in the European Union with the most significant economic contribution of the creative industries sector. It is one of the 15 EU countries where the value added by factor costs in this sector is most notable, said Diana Andreeva, Director of the Culture Economics Observatory and one of the participants in the forum.

According to Andreeva, the contribution of creative industries to Bulgaria's economy is close to 7% in 2023. This is nearly double compared to 2008 when the contribution was 4.1%.

The value added generated by Sofia over this 15-year period has grown from 7.5% to 12.7%.

Andreeva presented data on the economic impact of enterprises in the creative industries and tourism sectors from 2008 to 2023.

The data shows that, in monetary terms, the value added by the creative industries reached BGN 7.04 billion at the national level in 2023, compared to BGN 1.57 billion in 2008. In Sofia alone, the value added by creative industries amounted to BGN 5.84 billion, up from BGN 1.26 billion in 2008.

A significant increase has been observed in the number of registered enterprises operating in the fields of culture, cultural heritage, tourism, arts, and creative industries.

According to the data presented, there were 25,772 such enterprises in Bulgaria in 2023, up from 15,537 in 2008. Most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises, including micro-businesses.

This change is primarily due to the growth in the number of these enterprises in Sofia: from 7,114 in 2008 to 13,369 in 2023. According to Andreeva, this has led to an over-concentration of such businesses in the capital city.

In fact, this sector is the fourth most important for Sofia’s economy and the eighth most significant at the national level, commented Andreeva. She reported that one in ten companies in Sofia operates in the creative industries.

The sector has fully recovered from the COVID crisis, she added.

In 2023, over 115,000 people were employed in the sector, with an additional 100,000 temporarily working in the field.

This year’s forum includes 600 participants from 16 countries.

The conference is organized by the Creative Industries Cluster Bulgaria. The Createch Summit South-East Europe 2025 event is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), the Austrian Foreign Trade Representation Advantage Austria, and others.