Bulgaria Loses Some EUR 1 Bln Due to Lack of State Policy in Cultural Tourism – Expert Says

Jerusalem, 17 April, 2023 (TPS) -- 17.04.2023 (BTA)
Bulgaria loses some EUR billion – billion and a half a year due to the lack of a state policy in the field of cultural tourism and this has been going on chronically for thirty years, Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism Director Rumen Draganov said Monday in an interview with BTA on the the eve of the International Tourism Exhibition “Cultural Tourism 2023”, which will start in Veliko Tarnovo on April 20.

The problem comes from the fact that the state does not manage its cultural and historical property, and therefore does not know of its existence and does not allocate the necessary funds to this property to support local economies and create new jobs, he added.

Although it cannot be said how much of the nearly BGN 6 billion ($3.4 billion) annual tourism income in Bulgaria comes from cultural tourism, there is a misunderstanding that 70% comes from sea summer recreational tourism and 20% from winter ski tourism, Draganov argued. This is due to a complete misunderstanding of what cultural tourism represents and the fact it is also year-round, not seasonal, he explained.

“We consider, for example, Varna and Burgas as summer destinations, but we do not note that in Varna there is an opera, philharmonic, theatres, museums and a lot of public state property with many empty accommodation places. The same applies to Burgas. If we mentally remove the sea from these cities, we will see that we are talking about two European cultural destinations for year-round tourism,” the expert pointed out. Draganov added that the state does not invest into cultural advertising and in bringing the local monuments up to the world standards, as development in this direction is being overlooked.

Moreover, in the active summer months, the seaside towns are saturated with cultural events instead of distributing them all over the year and activating spring, autumn and winter, Draganov stated. He added that the fact that the international song contest Golden Orpheus stopped taking place in Sunny Beach resort is also “contributing” to the lost financial benefits for Bulgaria in cultural tourism. “Is it so difficult to understand that this festival was Bulgaria’s biggest marketing message to Europe, generated a huge number of tourists and its abolition was a giant folly for the still state-owned summer resort,” the expert asked.

Thanks to its natural and historical diversity, Bulgaria has significant resources for the development of tourism, and in particular cultural tourism, says an Eksplika – Global Metrics analysis, published on the Tourism Ministry website. Key among these resources are the UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Hundred National Tourist Sites, thousands of local traditional and cultural attractions, over 40 000 historical monuments, over 160 monasteries, more than 330 museums and galleries, rich traditions in holding festivals and holidays, preserved ethnographic heritage, national cuisine and oenological traditions.

Despite these features, Bulgaria is undetectable on the world map of cultural tourism because the state still does not know who owns the public state property in the part “cultural tourism” and which minister is in charge of the management of public state property in this part, Draganov argued. In principle, it is under the Regional Development Ministry, but the minister in charge does not know this at all, the Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism Director said.