site.btaExperts to Discuss Prospects for Bulgaria's Tourism Sector After Country's Accession to Schengen

The Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism (BUBSPA) is organizing a round table on the challenges and opportunities for tourism in Bulgaria following the country's full accession to Schengen. The forum will start at 2 pm on Tuesday at the Hilton Hotel in Sofia, the BUBSPA said.

Bulgaria's full accession to the Schengen area opens up new horizons for the tourism sector, the organization said, adding that the free movement of people is a prerequisite for increasing the tourist flow to the country, but at the same time it poses a number of challenges for businesses and institutions.

The aim of the round table is to analyze the current state of Bulgarian tourism in the context of Schengen, to identify the key challenges and opportunities related to attracting tourists from the Schengen area and third countries, to discuss measures to ease the procedures for hiring workers from third countries in tourism, in order to meet the needs of the sector for skilled labor. The formulation of recommendations for the responsible institutions to optimize tourism policies is also among the objectives of the conference.

All state institutions relevant to the topic - the Tourism Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Labour and Social Policy Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the State Agency for National Security, employers' organizations, investors - members of the BUBSPA, leading experts in the field of tourism, the heads of the national media Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and Bulgarian National Television (BNT), etc. are invited to participate in the discussion.

BTA is a media partner of the forum.