Officials call on Danube region to synergize efforts in tourism dev't

Officials of the United Nations and the Bulgarian government here on Monday recommended the Danube region combine efforts on cross-border and national levels to fully utilize its potential in the tourism sector.

"The Danube region is blessed with the abundance of cultural and natural assets which offer excellent opportunities for tourism development," Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said while addressing an international conference on tourism development in the Danube area.

"We need to synergize our efforts on a regional level in order to maximize the tourism potential and the competitiveness of the destination," Rifai said.

The region receives 125 million visitors every year; 11 percent of the world's tourists, he added.

Bulgarian Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said that for too long, the countries of the Danube region have competed for tourism, and there wasn't enough coordinated action.

However, tourist flows are changing, and Europe is becoming a major destination for tourists from Asia who seek opportunities to travel and stay on the continent for a period of a week to a month, Angelkova said.

"In this situation, we can be competitive only if we join efforts and offer joint tourism products," the minister said.

Moreover, tourism is a key pillar in the economy of the 14 countries in the Danube region, and the regional revenues from tourism amounted to over 70 billion euro (some 78.3 billion U.S. dollars) last year, Angelkova said.

In Bulgaria, tourism accounts for about 12 percent of the gross domestic product, and provides employment to about 360,000 people, she said.

Last year alone, Bulgaria was visited by over seven million foreign tourists, and revenues were more than 3.115 billion euro (some 3.5 billion dollars), Angelkova said.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev echoed that tourism was a sector wherein a regional approach had tremendous value.

"If we want to offer a quality service, we need to stake on regional formats, and seek an integrated tourism product even between countries," Donchev said.

Furthermore, it would be wrong to assume that only companies working in this sector should be engaged in tourism development, Donchev said.

Government and local authorities should also contribute to creating a more competitive and quality tourism product, he said.

"The degree of cooperation and coordination between all of them is critical," the deputy PM said. Endit