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Tourism in the municipalities along the Danube to be developed
Mirela.bg, 10.12.2010
Projects, aimed at the development of tourism and establishment of business centres, business incubators and industrial parks in the municipalities along the Danube, are among the main priorities in the Danube Strategy.
"These areas have potential for development and our efforts will be directed at unlocking it," Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Liliana Pavlova told Klassa. She added that the focus within the strategy's framework would be on developing cruise tourism and promoting SPA , wine and cultural tourism in the region. "Once we create a tourist product on a national level, we will do everything possible to develop a joint tourist product with Romania and Serbia so that holiday-makers could visit the sights of interest of all the three countries," she explained.
We have a unique cultural and historical heritage included in the UNESCO list and we have to develop and promote it in the most effective way. It is high time for Bulgaria to change its image of a low cost destination. If we can manage to attract cruise ships and tourists get off and visit the interesting places, Northern Bulgaria will no longer be the poorest region in Europe," said Pavlova.
The Danube Strategy will be proposed for approval by the European Council in the spring of 2011 during Hungary's presidency. The strategy will be presented in Bulgaria on December 14. During the Danube Strategy Summit in Romania at the beginning of November, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the 14 countries participating in its implementation would have €95 bn at their disposal, allocated to the each of them under the operational programmes of the EU. He explained then that the reduction of regional disparities should be accelerated.
"It will be difficult to develop cruise tourism in Bulgaria at this stage because the ports along the Danube are in a pretty bad shape. The river bank is high and so far nothing has been done to improve the access of tourists," Lyubomir Popyordanov, Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism (BAAT) said for Klassa. According to him, this problem can be solved by taking an advantage of the possibilities offered by the European programmes. He specified that the Danube Strategy was not intended to promote the business of one person but the idea was to improve the welfare of the people from the poorest part of Europe.
"Another infrastructure is even more important for the development of tourism in this region - the construction of bicycle lanes and paths for ecotourism, which is related to the conservation of nature, habitats, etc.," he added. There are many opportunities for the development of wine tourism in these regions as well. There is a wine museum in Pleven and some 20-30 wineries exporting their products are located in the region. "The Danube Strategy should also promote the development of this business and help it find market in Central and Western Europe," specified Popyordanov. He added that an accommodation network - guest houses in villages and family hostels – should be set up, as well.
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