Cultural Realms - Rossitza Ohridska-Olson's blog about the business of cultural tourism

The INTELLECT Institute

When I came up with the idea of creating an organization aimed to contribute with new technologies and marketing to the field of culture, my idea was that this institution should be in a form of public-private partnership. More than a year trying to involve governmental bodies showed great interest and little action. That is why we (friends and business partners) created an international private non-for-profit organization. The name is The INTELLECT Institute, which stands for Institute for New Technologies, Intelligence and Communications of Culture.

The mission of the Intellect Institute is to research, preserve, enhance experience and promote culture through scientific research, high technology solutions, best business practices, sound marketing and communications systems, and international tourism.

The INTELLECT Institute primary goal is to assist disadvantaged communities, organizations and individuals involved in research, preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage and living cultures, enhancing their capacity for productive and sustainable business operations.

Before the INTELLECT Institute has its own website and blog, I will use the Cultural Realms blog to post updates. All comments and suggestions are welcomed. You can start by reading the document, which outlines the mission, goals, strategies and structure of the INTELLECT Institute and add your ideas. Until the membership structure is defined by the Executive Board, everybody is welcome to join, as long as he or she shares the mission and is willing to contribute time and dedication to achieving the organization's goals.

Cultural Tourism Trends: Exotic destinations are first choice in ideal situations

When I created a Linkedin.com poll with a question: “Cultural & Creative Tourism: If you have unlimited amount of money and time, which type of destination you will choose?” I expected very different answers from what I obtained. I assumed that more people would prefer to spend their time and money on cultural trips in their own country. Then, less people would prefer well-established cultural tourism destinations outside of their country and the least amount of responders would choose emerging destinations and the most exotic cultural experiences. If we add the fact established by a CIA study that 80% of the world population is born, lives and dies in a 50 miles radius, I assumed much more conservative answers. Well, as you can see, I was completely wrong (click on the image below to enlarge it or visit the poll results page ) :

Now, there are also drastic differences if we analyze in depth the results. Women are bigger risk-takers, probably because they are always dreaming about the exotic cultures and novel-inspired cultural exchanges. There is a difference of 11 percent (48% for women and 37% for man, respectively) between the genders, when it comes to choose an exotic cultural tourism destination. On the other side, women who prefer to not travel at all, given unlimited time and money, are twice more than men (4% versus 2 % ).

Age differences were totally predictable: the majority of the youngest age group  - 18 to 24 years old – prefer to explore the most exotic destinations: 67% and the emerging travel destination countries (33%). The biggest responder group is between 35 and 54 years old, coinciding with the biggest number of population in all countries(55% of all responders) also prefer the exotic destinations(47%). This is also the only group that includes domestic cultural and creative tourism travel.

Emerging cultural and creative tourism destinations win positions with employees of medium enterprises (50%), academics and product development professionals

Domestic travel (33%) and well-established destinations (67%) are favorite for the HR professionals, while 100% of the consultants want to go wild in the cultural jungles of unexplored destinations.

As a conclusion: I believe that on one side, this was a legitimate poll as goals. It provided information of what would be the dream destinations for my linkedin.com quittances. On the other side, I am sure that the results would be very different if I asked the question: “To what destination was your cultural trip the last year?” Should I make a poll like this? You tell me.

The Thracian Civilization without Dr. Kitov

Or In Memoriam – One Year Later

One year after the death of Dr. Geogri Kitov, the state of the Bulgarian archaeology is in many cases unchanged and in the same time, transformed. Here is the overview of these events:

What is the same?

The TEMP Expedition (Thracian Expedition for Burial Mounts Research), created and managed in the past by Dr. Kitov, continues to make sensational discoveries. In August 2009, a very rich burial mound with gold wreath and other precious objects were found near Sliven by Diana Dimitrova, the spouse of Dr. Kitov and his colleague in the Temp expedition.  Under her management, the expedition continues to perform the best research in the Valley of the Thracian Kings.

Other archeological discoveries of great importance for the research of the Thracian Civilization were made by archeologists in Bulgaria. Dr. Gergana Kabakchieva discovered a unique stelae near Montana with inscriptions revealing vast amount of information about the customs and traditions of the Thracians. Dr. Diana Gergova discovered a spectacular sanctuary of the Thracians in the mountains near Velingrad -  a site so big and interesting that is rivaling only Perperikon.

What is different?

The new Bulgarian government appointed an archaeologist and renowned fighter against the illicit trade of antiquities, Dr. Todor Chobanov, as Deputy Minister of Culture. With his help, and the newly changed Law for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Bulgaria, the illicit digging and looting of Thracian archaeological sites will be way more difficult for the treasure hunters than it was before – a cause to which Dr. Kitov was totally dedicated.

The Alexandrovo Tomb (UNESCO Tentative List), discovered by Dr. Georgi Kitov has a new museum and a copy. Thanks to the Bulgarian and Japanese governments, and Haskovo Municipality, another gem of the Thracian civilization is accessible to the public.

A spectacular selection of Thracian treasures from the Bojkov Collection was exhibited with enormous success in the Museum of the East, Moscow, Russia. In the same time, the exhibition of Thracian Gold from the Bulgarian museums, which was visiting Tokyo, Japan, came back to Bulgaria after a year of very successful showing in the country of the rising sun.

Many of these events wouldn’t be possible without Dr. Kitov’s passionate dedication to the Thracian civilization. That is why many of them were dedicated to his memory. Let’s join all organizations and individuals in remembering the achievements of this larger than life man and brilliant archaeologist.