Background
In April 1998, with the assistance of the European Fund for Liberty of Expression , a project started titled Citizens Participation Development on a Local Level in Central and East Europe . The Municipality of Assenovgrad is among the five Bulgarian municipalities involved in the project. There are several factors which set the priority of the subject Motivation of the population of the village of Bachkovo for efficient utilization of the natural resources :
- reduced possibilities for employment of the population; - basic possibilities for employment in the region are offered in the field of agriculture, but the mountain region impedes and makes more expensive the modern regional development;
- this is one of the possible alternatives for active ecological and rural tourism development in the region. There are certain premises for the tourism development in the region - the Monastery of Bachkovo, forest parks and beautiful nature;
- private residential buildings are not properly and efficiently used.

Practice
A working group consisting of representatives from the Municipality of Assenovgrad, Mayorality of Bachkovo, NGOs and private companies, develops a project called Motivation of the population of the village of Bachkovo for efficient utilization of the natural resources for tourism development . The practical goal of the project is to motivate the citizens for the idea and achieve its successful realization. The aims of the project are the following:

- to acquaint the citizens with the real value of the natural resources of the village of Bachkovo;

- to convince the population that there are certain opportunities for developing tourism activity in the region;

- to give training on how to create a tourist product and how to advertise it in the most successful way to those who intend to start a tourist business of their own.

In order to inform the citizens of the village about the strategy and aims of the project, the working group organizes three radio broadcasts and prepares publications and articles for the local and regional newspapers. This is very important, since one of the expected results is the active citizens participation in the project`s activity. In order to meet the real needs of the population, the working group conducts an inquiry among 100 citizens. The results obtained help for the creating of an objective model of the future work. The next step is to distribute a brochure with description of the project`s ideas, strategy, goals and expected results. All these activities lead to the involvement of the citizens in the implementation of the project.

The working group initiates three training seminars in the context of the program. During the first one - Sustainable Tourism in the Rhodopes Mountains and the Region the participants are acquainted with the possibilities for utilization of the natural, cultural and historic resources of the region, as well as with the BASET National Program. An important part of the information offered are the explications about trade site` category and involvement of local self-government in the process, according to the Tourism Act. The other two seminars are titled: Development of biological agriculture and Development of sustainable thremmatology .

Difficulties: The working group did not meet any difficulties convincing the population how useful it would be to achieve the practical aims of the project. The difficulties occurred after that - when the matter came to the financial part of the activities, connected with the renovation of the old residential buildings, with the advertising of the tourism product and with the language training of the businessmen interested in this particular field.

Results
As a result the population began to believe that the future of the village of Bachkovo depends on the tourism development in the region. The citizens realized that the only way towards prosperity passes through the encouragement of tourist activity. The beginning of a concrete initiative has been determined, together with the establishment of a sustainable tourist product. The practical results are the following:

- a map describing the tourist routes in the region was published;

- a draft proposal for the opening and licensing of the first part of the nature trail leading to the Red Wall forest park was introduced to the BASET National Program;

- three training seminars with the following titles were held: Sustainable tourism in the Rhodopes Mountains and the region , Development of biological agriculture and Development of sustainable thremmatology ;

- registration and licensing of three private residential buildings with 14 bed capacity for guests;

- the working group developed five individual projects, which were candidates for financial aid from the Ministry of Tourism in Bulgaria;

- a project for the publishing of a brochure describing the landmark of the village of Bachkovo.