Notes from the Second Congress of Investors in the Tourism
The Second Congress of Investors in the Tourism was held in Hilton, Sofia on September 26, 2008 - just before the Day of the Tourism celebrated by the UNWTO. My presence there was only informative – to see what are the directions that will take both investors and governing bodies in the tourism.
The wishes of the Congress were clear – to work towards changing the product of the Bulgarian tourism. To create a new, appealing travel products, outside of the recreational ones (sea, sun, ski), in spite their 20% growth forecasted for this year.
As per Ms. Krushkova, the President of the Bulgarian Agency for Tourism, the highlights of this new product should be on cultural tourism – in its broad sense: creating new emotions and experiencing the pleasure of life: wine, spa, wellness, events and small towns/rural tourism.
The President of the Republic, Mr. Georgi Purvanov and the entire panel of Mr. Roumen Draganov from the Institute for Research in the Tourism have highlighted the difficulties to create a historic heritage cultural tourism – lack legislation defining the ownership of cultural heritage sites and monuments leading to lack of interest in creating tourist infrastructure around them.
Other problems that exist since the time I was student in the Sofia University, such as lack of trained personnel in hotels, tour operators, restaurants, etc., bad infrastructure outside the super resorts, and the total disregard of the ecology, were highlighted again, without any clear solution.
So, when all of private investors and the representative bodies of the government appealed for the creation of new tourism strategy for the country and a new image of Bulgaria as tourist destination, I was asking myself – should we really invest time and money on positioning planning and new branding, when, at this point, we don’t have the ability to create the product we wish to advertise?
And the answer is yes, we should. We should invest first in a proper legislation regarding the ownership and marketing of the cultural heritage (historic and living ones) of Bulgaria (See my position on the Cultural Heritage law – in Bulgarian only). Then, we should invest in creating a workforce, from the bottom to the top level, able to create and manage alternative types of tourism. Only then a new strategy for tourism development can work, and a new branding can be implemented. And finally, we should create a legislative framework to finance the tourism advertising globally, and target emerging markets smartly, using the latest trends in promotion.
In the meantime, we only can create, manage, service and advertise on small scale niche products (special interests, small spa and wellness programs, wine tours, events, festivals), mainly through Internet and the social networks, which are perfect for this type of tourism.
