The 42nd tourism organisation in Bulgaria was created on September 3, in Sofia. It is called the Union of the Investors in Tourism (UIT) and includes representatives of 50 tourism operators and companies from around the country.

The consultative council of the new organisation consists of Vladimir Karolev, who will be in charge of investments and development, the director of the Institute for Industrial Relations and Management and a member of the management board of the National Professional Education Agency within the Cabinet – Dimitur Kamenov, who will be in charge of the education and qualifications in UIT, the director of the National History Museum Bojhidar Dimitrov, who will be responsible for the culture-historical heritage, the deputy economy and energy minister Nina Radeva, who will be in charge of European funds, the deputy minister of environment and water affairs Lyubka Kachakova, who will have responsibility for environmental protection, the deputy minister of foreign affairs Feim Chaushev, in charge of international co-operation for UIT and the chairperson of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee Stefka Kostadinova, who will be responsible for the sport and tourism section.

During a news conference held in the Ambassador hotel in Sofia, the UIT spokesperson said the newly created association, through its juridical commission, would start creating a new legal concept for changes to the normative base of the Tourism Act. UIT will also campaign for a common European categorisation of Bulgarian tourist spots.

Another objective of UIT is to open more consulate offices, mainly in Moscow and London, as well as to assist in the opening of common European consulates in other non-EU countries.

UIT will be engaged in the protection of the interests of all investors in the tourism industry, from the smallest to the biggest, and will not neglect anyone based on business size.

With respect to Bulgarian tourists, the UIT representatives said they would encourage the Bulgarian tourists to “think with the criteria of the European tourist” and to plan their holidays well in advance to make use of better conditions and discounts.

UIT also called on all its members to advertise Bulgaria as a tourism destination abroad and the organisation committed to the possibility, through public-private partnership, to recreate the lost tourism image of Bulgaria, with the aim of helping the state, “which can not succeed on its own”.

UIT will also restore, through its own financing, many of the Bulgarian tourism representations abroad. The representation in Frankfurt will be rebuild from October 2007, the maintenance of which will cost up to 20 000 euro a year.

Another new thing the UIT will create, this time in Sofia, will be a multimedia tourist information centre, similar to the Nice model. Films about tourism destinations and services will be screened at the centre.

Other objectives of the UIT are to organise building its own stands at the big Bulgarian and foreign tourism exchanges, as well as to support the State Agency for Tourism in advertising Bulgaria as an attractive tourism destination and a place for holidays for wealthy tourists.

UIT will also prepare a special programme aimed at attracting more Bulgarian tourists, called “2008 – The Year of the Bulgarian Tourists”.

Some of the other main task of UIT include producing magazines and issuing printed materials, which deal with professional topics, as well as organising seminars and conferences about tourism industry problems with representatives of the state authorities, municipalities, the non-governmental sector and other branch organisations. It will also to arrange meetings within UIT, with the aim of a knowledge exchange between Bulgarian and international specialists. The new tourism organisation also plans to co-operate with the colleges and universities that offer tourism education, as well as to creating education, qualification and cadres rules.