Bulgarian FM to open first meeting of new tourism committee

12:47 Tue 25 Nov 2008 - Spasena Baramova

On November 26, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin will open and host the first meeting of the newly-created consultative committee on tourism, the press service of the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The meeting is expected to discuss a project for a national strategy for sustainable development of tourism in Bulgaria for the period 2008/13, as well as a draft law on amendments to the Tourism Act. It will also review the annual programme for national tourism advertisement for 2009 and will discuss the requirements towards the tourism associations listed in the National Tourism Register.

The committee was created in October 2008 at the initiative of Kalfin, who is its chairperson. Bulgaria's Ministers of Regional Development, Transport, Finance, Environment and Water Affairs, as well as the Economy and Energy Minister, the Interior Minister and the head of the Foreign Minister's cabinet are the Government representatives in it. The non-governmental sector, for its part, is represented by the National Confederation of the Tourism Industry, the Union of Bulgarian Tourism Industry, the Union of Investors in Tourism and the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria.

The head of the State Tourism Agency Anelia Kroushkova is the deputy chairperson of the committee.

Comments

Comments by jinal Shah - 19:06 25 Nov 2008
	Having been in Bulgaria for over 3 years and seen what reforms are taking place I personally think that getting the message across to the right person is a pain in the back. For a true example recently Our company participated in a trade fair in Kenya. We have over 600enquiries of potential people wanting to travel from one exhibition. This numbers will grow as the word spreads we are willing to welcome the East African enterprenuers and the investors with open arms. But when we approached the Ministry for visa as well as the tourism board we were laughed at. We are asked why do you want a consulate in Kenya when there are no direct flights from there to Bulgaria. Our reply was: when you have a consulate it makes travel easier since everyone is sure they will get to see Bulgaria which is the whole intention and not to waste time and money in some other country that they did not want to visit. To get a charter flight is not so expensive as well but the normal ministry worker will never understand this and just put down the phone. Now for weeks we are trying all different methods to convince people to open doors to foreigners who are willing to travel and to make the process easier and faster. Can someone help ..... we need to put some more sense in our minister and the officers in charge not to create obstacles but to increase the tourism trade which other wise treats our hotels and in the long run investors. Hope the solution comes sooner