Bulgaria plays an important role for the development of partnership in tourism between member states of the Organization for Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). This was an opinion shared by Speaker of Parliament Tsveta Karayancheva and BSEC Secretary General Michael Christides. He is in Bulgaria to participate in the informal meeting of EU ministers of tourism which will take place tomorrow in Sofia.

The Speaker of Parliament emphasised that among Bulgaria’s priorities was the development of cooperation with the countries from the Black Sea region. Tsveta Karayancheva mentioned the significance of BSEC for deepening and expanding cooperation between our countries in different areas and expressed her hope that Bulgaria would contribute to this as a coordinator of a working group “Cooperation in tourism”.

BSEC Secretary General Michael Christides said that the organisation considered the partnership between its member states in tourism to be of great importance. In the past eighteen months, during which Bulgaria coordinated the working group in this sector, a lot of work was done, and we hope our efforts will help to build a collective tourist image of the Black Sea region, he said. Michael Christides emphasised that there were many things that united BSEC member states, among which culture, wine, food and traditions. BSEC plans to make a web portal with a wine map of BSEC member states, which will contain information about traditions and practices in the sector in different countries, he said.

The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is a chance for Bulgaria to show its beautiful nature, rich cultural and historical heritage, and traditions, said Tsveta Karayancheva. In her words, the increase of the number of tourists in recent years is a clear evidence of this.

Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said that during the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of Europe, there would be a meeting of the ministers of tourism of BSEC member states in Varna in June.