National network of tourist information centres to be launched in Bulgaria



Tourist information centres scattered around Bulgaria should operate more efficiently and meet certain common criteria in terms of the services they offer. This will certainly increase the tourist flow to the respective regions, which would be to the benefit of local communities. This is the opinion of experts from the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism who are now working on a project for introducing common rules for the work of these centres and for making them part of a nation-wide network. The project has been financed by the EU’s Regional Development OP and amounts to 310 thousand euro. It is expected to lead to a 5-percent growth in the tourist sector in these regions by 2013.
Perhaps many people in Bulgaria have been in this situation – arriving in a lovely small town and not knowing where to stay or how to spend their free time. While strolling around the town’s centre, they suddenly take a glimpse of a nice tourist centre and happily head towards it. But often it turns out that this tourist centre is either closed or the impolite lady inside answers all questions with a grim and unfriendly face. With the adoption of common criteria for the operation of tourist information centres in the country and including them in a common national network, these practices will end, officials from the Economy Ministry hope. Currently, there are 64 tourist information centres in Bulgaria. They are municipal, private or owned by non-governmental organizations, have all types of names and offer services of different quality. The problem is that each of these tourist centres works without complying with a set of official regulations and criteria.



“The common thing between all such centres is that they offer free tourist information about the respective region as well as guiding services, sale of keepsakes and souvenirs, promotional leaflets, etc. Currently, we don’t have any common criteria regulating the work of these centres in terms of their names, equipment, and training of personnel”, says Maria Ivanova from the Economy Ministry who is the project’s coordinator.

In the coming months, such criteria are to be devised in accordance with European practices. The goal is to turn tourist centres in Bulgaria into key information facilities offering a wide range of services in compliance with the best practices in the modern tourist industry. Including all such centres in a nation-wide network will be to the benefit of both tourists and the tourist industry at large.

“Our goal is to come up with a set of rules that everyone should observe”, Maria Ivanova explains. “Tourist centres be included in the network at their own will in case they think this will be useful for them to be its members. But everyone who is part of it should observe the regulations. By 2013, we expect a 5-percent rise in the number of trips to the regions with tourist information centres. What is more, we expect that tourists will make their stays longer. This will mean some 40 thousand visitors, with 16 thousand of them being foreign tourists”, Maria Ivanova from the Bulgarian Economy Ministry, says.