The long-awaited Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy for the period 2008 – 2013, presented by the State Agency for Tourism (SAT) at the end of January, will focus on business representatives and the various branch organisations. The strategy’s main priorities are: to turn Bulgaria into a tourist destination of better quality through an increase in the sector’s effectiveness and competitiveness; the improvement of the infrastructure at national, regional and municipal levels; and through the uniform implementation of international standards and European practices.

In mid-February, Anelia Kroushkova, head of the SAT presented its strategy for the development of Bulgaria’s tourism to the National Movement for Stability and Progress party, asking for its support in Parliament.

Kroushkova asked for a new law on tourism that will put an end to what has widely been called irresponsible and uncontrolled construction in Bulgaria’s resorts. The new law would form part of the Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy.

Kroushkova has called for a working group within the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry to define new requirements for the density of construction and height of buildings.

She said that the ordinance defining the terms “resort” and “holiday village” including their area and size should also be rewritten. The new regulations would only be applied to new projects.

Another part of the strategy concerned those people involved in the industry. “Only two per cent of the people involved in the industry are professionals. The others are random players that have already started selling their hotels because they cannot pay back their debts,” Kroushkova said.

Kroushkova received praise for her attempt to “professionalise” the sector through the strategy. However, critics pointed to two main shortcomings in the blueprint – the questionable accuracy of figures used in the strategy and the proposal for three-year categorisation of hotels.

The document is based on figures issued by the National Statistical Institute (NSI); official statistics have often been considered inaccurate. Hotel owners tend to under-report bookings to the municipalities to evade taxes. In addition, the statistics office does not distinguish between foreign holidaymakers and foreigners visiting local friends as guests. Given the unreliable information it was unclear whether a growth of 25 per cent in tourism revenues over the coming five years was attainable. Revenues topped 2.4 billion euro in 2007 and should almost triple to six billion euro by 2013, according to the strategy.

“The NSI figures are the state’s official data and the only information we can use,” Milena Milotinova, a public relations official at the SAT, told The Sofia Echo.

The second matter of concern was Kroushkova’s proposal to review the categorisation of hotels once every three years. Kroushkova’s argument ran as follows. At present hotels were awarded stars and their status was never revisited again. However, even newly built developments wear out in five to six years, leading to natural deterioration of the quality of service. The period review of categorisation would stimulate owners to maintain their hotels in a good repair, Kroushkova said. Hotel owners and representatives from branch organisations said, however, that having a categorisation system that meant ratings were reviewed every three years was the agency’s latest trick to generate more fees from owners.

On another note, Kroushkova said she believed the strategy drew on Bulgaria’s historical legacy and availability of natural resources. For this particular reason, one of the main objectives of the strategy was the development of cultural tourism. Kroushkova gave just one fact to support this objective: Bulgaria has the third highest number of historical monuments of all European Union member states. In addition, the country had 8000 mineral water springs and Bulgaria had never taken advantage of that, Kroushkova said.

The strategy also highlighted the development of congress tourism. For this reason, the year 2008 was named the Year of Congress Tourism in Bulgaria.

The strategy also included the development of eco, rural, hunting and golf tourism. The activities proposed in the strategy would be financed under EU’s operational programmes.