It has been agreed that the beaches’ concessions shall be transferred from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works to the Ministry of Tourism. This was announced today by the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova at a meeting in the Burgas Regional Administration. The Governor Valcho Cholakov, mayors of municipalities and representatives of the tourist branch took part in the meeting. The main purpose of the visit was getting acquainted with the problems and challenges of the local branch. It is expected that the transferring procedure of the concessions to be concluded till the beginning of 2016 and forthcoming a working group will be formed in order to prepare all normative changes. “We will explore the possibility for some municipalities to manage certain beaches which are not rendered for concession with the aim to provide a better service to the people. This is the case of the Burgas Municipality that manages the Central beach of the town. ”, Minister Angelkova said.
In 2014 a decrease of the Russian and Ukrainian tourists’ number has been reported as compared to the same period of 2013. It is approx. 21 000 down for tourists from Russia and 56 000 down for tourists from Ukraine on 2013. “To be opposed to the negative trend we work out together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs new alleviation of the visa issuing procedures. Our aim is to standardize the administrative procedures in any particular consulships and the visa centers so that visas can be issued within 3 till 7 days. ”, Nikolina Angelkova explained. “Among the measures for compensation of the tourists’ reduction in the country is also the appropriate advertising.”, Minister Angelkova said. The National Council of Tourism is expected to adopt the national advertising program of Bulgaria where along with sea and winter tourism the main focus in 2015 will be the cultural-historical tourism.
