Tourism minister: Spa tourism in Bulgaria should be developed and promoted

Spa tourism shoul

four seasons. Sapareva Banya is an example of a year-round tourist destination, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Mariana Nikolova said on August 20 at a working meeting with representatives of the local government and businesses in the municipality. The mayor of Sapareva Banya Kalin Gelev and the deputy district governor of Kyustendil Matei Popnikolov took part in the discussion.

Minister Nikolova also pointed out that the focus needs to be on niche types of tourism, because they have a huge potential for development, which will help the progress of the entire industry. According to her, it is important to have positive messages and advertising to encourage the travel of both Bulgarian and foreign tourists. Next week we will launch a campaign to promote little-known places, she added and specified that the campaign envisages posting on social networks of videos made by tour guides, in which they tell about tourist attractions.

The Deputy Prime Minister also presented to the participants in the discussion all the measures taken by the government to support the tourism sector, which is among the worst affected by the pandemic caused by COVID-19.

Mayor Kalin Gelev said that there were 102 guest houses in the municipality and reported that currently they are fully booked. He commented that this is a trend that has been observed in the recent months as a consequence of the pandemic. Representatives of the business pointed out that it is good to consider any specific incentives or reliefs for the owners of guest houses. According to them, a targeted allocation of funds for advertising to smaller municipalities would also have a positive impact. There are many architectural sites in the area that are in private terrain, and this leads to complications for the excavation work, the industry said. And they pointed out that it will be very useful to hold talks with the relevant institutions to overcome these difficulties.

Deputy Prime Minister Nikolova also presented data from the Unified Tourist Information System (UTIS), according to which from the beginning of the year to August 15, more than 26,000 tourists visited Kyustendil region. Most of them - over 12,000 stayed in the municipality of Sapareva Banya. Of these, Bulgarian tourists were over 11,000. There were visitors from Ukraine, the Republic of North Macedonia, France, Russia, Israel and others.

I believe that together - local government and state institutions, we will be able to lay better foundations for the upcoming winter and next summer season, said the Deputy Prime Minister. She added that she hoped to have a constructive dialogue and a fruitful partnership so that we can outline specific steps and initiatives to contribute to better results in tourism.

During the working visit, Minister Nikolova visited the geyser fountain with water temperature of 102 degrees and "St. Nicholas" church in Sapareva Banya.