Bulgaria could build a very strong tourist industry, turning it into the most important source of revenue for the budget.

The main challenge the country faces is to properly market this profitable sector of the economy. These were key themes in the two-day conference “Bulgaria – Dream Area” that took place in Sofia on January 10 and 11.

The conference was addressed by the former US president Bill Clinton, who called it a “unique forum” and said “I know that the more people who come and visit, the more boosters you will have; not only here, in America, in Europe but throughout the world.”

The Government aims to establish a uniform national policy on the development of tourism as the leading economic sector, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg told participants in the conference during the opening ceremony.

Saxe-Coburg said that Bulgaria needs an expert analysis of the state of the domestic tourist sector, a package of real measures, a marketing strategy and a massive advertising campaign.

He said a new law on tourism had been drafted, as well as a statutory framework for the creation of specialised infrastructure. “The main goal of the Government is to diversify the tourist services. Bulgaria has great potential in areas such as eco and rural tourism,” he said.

Details of the tourism plan were fleshed out by Deputy Minister Dimitar Hadjinikolov, who is responsible for tourism.

Bulgaria is one of 60 countries in the world whose annual revenues from tourism exceed $1 billion. This year’s revenues, over the tourism sector financial year, which is from autumn to autumn, are projected at $1.25 billion to $1.3 billion, Hadjinikolov said.

He quoted World Tourism Organisation data which said that by 2020 Bulgaria will attract 10.6 million tourists a year. Last year tourists numbered 2.8 million.

Hadjinikolov said that $137 million have been attracted in foreign investment in tourism since 1992, of which $40 million was for greenfield investment.

This was why the Government relied on an investment promotion system, drawn up with the help of bankers. Its main planks were loans and law-making initiatives.

He said investment potential was largest in spa resorts, cultural, rural and alternative tourism, which now accounted for only 20 per cent of accommodation and revenues. Hadjinikolov said national parks and nature reserves covered 5 per cent of the country’s territory.

There were 37 km of eco-trails and more than 40,000 cultural monuments; the country’s 1,600 mineral springs had an average flow of 5,000 litres a second.

But Bulgaria had only two hotels in its well-known spa resorts, Sandanski and Hissarya, which offer modern water treatment programmes.

Seventy per cent of facilities were concentrated along the Black Sea coast, and 40 per cent of foreign currency revenues in the tourist industry were generated in July and August. And yet foreigners used only half of the seaside vacation facilities.

A national strategy for development of tourism will be prepared and submitted for approval to the National Assembly, Hadjinikolov said.

The ministries of the economy and the interior and the municipal administrations of the resorts are drawing up a security programme, which is expected to be ready by the end of the first quarter of 2002.

But at the same time businesses involved in the tourism sector have many gripes, including about taxes and poor transport infrastructure.

The tourist industry wanted airlines to price their tickets in euros as well as dollars, International Air Transport Association representative for Bulgaria Yordan Karamalakov said.

Most tourists to Bulgaria came from European Union countries, which meant travel agencies lost money from currency fluctuations, Karamalakov said.

Bulgarian Association of Travel Agents chairperson Donka Sokolova said domestic hotels also should price their services in euros.

Bulgarian Hotel and Restau-rant Association Chairman Blagoi Ragin proposed that the international financial institutions provide Bulgarian hotel owners with $20 million at preferential terms for setting up a guarantee fund. The money would cover the owners’ debts to banks for rehabilitation credits.

Bulgarian banks extended credit at interest rates between 12 and 22 per cent, hoteliers said. In European countries the interest rate was 6 per cent. And the result of this is clear. Slowly, but surely the banks are becoming owners of the property.

Donka Sokolova said almost a third of the beds at the Black Sea resort of Slunchev Briag could soon become property of a bank because the owners were finding it hard to service their credits.

The other problem was VAT, which has been levied on all tourist services from January 1.

Foreign experts expressed opinions on the matter.

Walter Leu, chief executive of the European Travel Commission, said the introduction of VAT on package tours offered abroad was a step in the right direction because it brought Bulgaria in line with EU practices.

Graham Wason, vice president of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), said the introduction of VAT and the rise in the VAT rate should be slow and well-considered, and should take into account the policies of Bulgaria’s competitors.

Wason projected that in 2011 travel and tourism would be generating 9.7 per cent of Bulgaria’s GDP and would give jobs to 220,000 people.

There is a shortage of yacht and boat slips in the marinas across the world, of which Bulgaria could take advantage by building new marinas, according to Gary Groenewald, vice president of International Westrec Marinas Worldwide, a US company for yachting tourism.

Last year alone, the sale of yachts of 25m and over increased by 30 per cent worldwide.

Bulgaria had the advantages of its geographic location, cultural heritage and many sea resorts, he said. The yacht marinas could bring money to the public purse both from the fees charged for transits and from tourists because a marina is an attraction on its own right. Groenewald gave as an example Fort Lauderdale, which nets about $250 million in proceeds from yacht displays.

Foreign experts at the forum recommended that Bulgaria should develop gambling tourism, which could draw in visitors from neighbouring Greece and Turkey.

According to data given to the conference by Bob Miller, a former governor of Nevada and a co-organiser of the conference, $30,000 million were spent by tourists in Las Vegas a year; the hotel occupancy rate there was 97 per cent.

Slovenia was singled out as a successful example of a country that had managed to use gambling to attract tourists from its neighbours.

Italian tourists spent $500 million on gambling in Slovenia every year. Greece generates tax revenue of $800 million from the operation of the nine casinos it has licensed.