Background

The Tourism project, which has been realized since the beginning of August 1994 in Central Stara Planina Mountain with the assistance of the Swiss government, has as its main purpose the consolidation and coordination of the efforts on local and regional level towards achievement of sustainable development of tourism. The region of Central Stara Planina Mountain is exceptionally rich in tourism resources, but they had not been appropriately presented on the tourist market and as a whole the destination was not well-known to a big part of the tourist services users.

On initiative of Swiss experts and with the active participation of local authorities tourist associations NGOs of those engaged in tourism were created in the municipalities of Tryavna, Gabrovo, Aprilsti, Troyan and Teteven, and tourist information offices were set up in each of the five municipalities. A Regional Tourist Association was created in the summer of 1996, established by the five local tourist associations, the Municipality of Gabrovo and the Gabrovo Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 1998 the regional office of the Association was set up in the City of Gabrovo.

Practice

In 1996 the first color tourist brochure Stara Planina the path of the Sun (circulation - 32 000 copies in four languages) was issued, which presented the five Stara Planina Mountain municipalities as one tourist destination. A price list supplement offering information on the tourist sites, accommodation and public catering facilities in the whole region was annually issued in Bulgarian and in English. In 2000 Stara Planina Association issued a second color tourist brochure Vacation in four seasons (6 000 copies) and two color posters, which offered regional tourist products.

In 1998 Stara Planina Association together with the tourist associations realized a project for pedestrian and bicycle tourism With a bicycle and a packpack on the path of the Sun . Pedestrian and bicycle routes were marked and signaled and a regional tourist map was issued with the support of the municipalities. The Swiss donors financed the purchase of 25 bicycles mountain bikes that were offered for hiring in the municipal tourist information offices.

Since 1999 Stara Planina Association and Tourist Association Gabrovo organized regional contact exchanges seminars aimed at drawing tour operators attention to the region and presenting the tourist potential on the spot.

Stara Planina Association has presented the region at every national tourist fair since 1996 at a stall granted by the Ministry of Economics (ME). With the assistance of the ministry and the tour operators collaborating with the organization, the advertising materials have reached all international tourism fairs, at which Bulgaria was presented. A good result towards the increase in tourist demand for the region was produced also by the web site of the Association: during 2001 it has brought many tourists from Europe and the USA.

The local tourist organizations and the regional one are engaged not only in marketing and advertising the region. A priority task is to work for the solution of the problems of the branch, to enhance competitiveness of the tourist supply and to defend the interests of their members on local, regional and national level.

Several practical training courses were organized in previous years for the improvement of the local entrepreneurs competence. In the summer of 2001 the Association collaborated with Balkan Assist Association for the implementation of a project for practical training of students from the region of Stara Planina Mountain in Italy, financed by the EU Program Leonardo Da Vinci . The Regional Tourist Association and the local associations were active participants in the Swiss Government project Community Forum , as a result of which the project Guaranteeing the quality of tourist services in the region of Central Stara Planina Mountain ensued.

In the future the Regional Tourist Association and the local associations will work in three main directions:
- Institutional strengthening of the organizations;
- Increase of revenues in the tourist branch; creation, development and promotion of a regional tourist product;
- Increase of the competitiveness of tourist services supply of the region.

Stara Planina Association is a member of the Bulgarian Hotel & Restaurant Association, the Bulgarian Tourist Agencies Association, the Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism and the Balkan Assist Association. It is also represented in the National Tourist Board at the Ministry of Economics and participates actively in all national and regional discussions on the problems of tourism development.

Applications for membership in the Association have submitted the new tourist association in Sevlievo and the Tourist Council in Etropole. Tourist and advertising agencies and NGOs from Sevlievo, Etropole, Sofia, Lovech and other cities have showed interest in membership.

Results

1. The implementation of a large-scale project for the development of tourism in the region of Central Stara Planina Mountain has created conditions favorable for the development of tourism as a whole.
2. Many proprietors of hotels, village houses and villas acquired new knowledge and skills for the supply of tourist services.
3. Through the marketing and advertising activity of the Association within the country and abroad the region has become a more widely known and visited tourist destination.
4. The good collaboration with other NGOs has led to the solution of some of the most painful problems in tourism and to a joint protection of the branch interests on national level.
5. The activity of the local and regional tourist organizations proved to the local population and local authorities that the NGO sector has the potential to assist sustainable economic development and civil society in Bulgaria.