Large-Scale Project to Promote Culture Tourism

The launch of a 6.6 million euro project for development of culture tourism in Bulgaria will be announced tomorrow, April 25, at a special news conference beginning 11.00 a.m. in the Granite Hall of the Council of Ministers. At the news conference will be Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolai Vassilev, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Valentin Tserovski and the Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria Dimitris Kourkoulas. The Deputy Ministers of Economy, Sofia Kassidova and Dimiter Hadjinikolov, of Finance Lyubomir Datsov and of Culture Bissera Yossifova will also be there. The Development of Bulgarian Culture project will start officially on 7 May 2003 when a call for proposals will be published on the Websites of the Ministries of Economy and of Regional Development and Public Works. Project proposals will start to be accepted from this date. The total project value is 6.6 million euros, including 5 million euros from operation Phare and 1.6 million matching contribution by the Bulgarian national budget. The project will fund various activities including development and modelling of tourist products, improvement of infrastructure and/or restoration of monuments of culture and history. Winning proposals are entitled to grant aids between 70,000 and 350,000 euros. Development of Bulgarian Culture Tourism has been approved for funding under the Phare programme of the European Union. The goal is to improve the quality and market value of Bulgarian culture tourism products. Among the programme targets is a 15% increase of revenue in tourism until 31st December 2004. The strategic goals include better use of the culture and history heritage of the country and promotion of culture and rural tourism in new regions. The main objective is to improve the quality of the tourist product – especially in culture tourism – so as to increase the contribution of this sector to the GDP generation and create a new income source in certain parts of the country. Public Relations and International Activity Directorate