Acad. Plamen Kartaloff, director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, took part in the first conference on the development of cultural tourism in Bulgaria.

TravelNews organized the event. Tourism minister Miroslav Borshosh and Marian Bachev, minister of culture, took part in the conference and opened the discussion.

Representatives of different ministries and municipalities, of cultural institutions such as the National history museum, the National archeological institute with a museum at the Bulgarian academy of sciences, the Sofia Opera and Ballet, the tourism sector as well as representatives from non-government organizations also attended the event; the latter outlined the directions for developing cultural tourism in the country.

In the center of discussion were the problems and opportunities of the Bulgarian cultural tourism on which Assoc. Todor Chobanov (deputy minister of culture), Assoc. doctor Boni Petrunova (director of the National history museum), acad. Plamen Kartaloff (director of the Sofia Opera and Ballet), assoc. doctor Hristo Popov (director of the National archeological institute with a museum at the Bulgarian academy of sciences) commented.

Engineer Katya Stoyanova, director of the History museum in Petrich, Danail Tsekov, Chief curator of the Rila Monastery museum, prof. doctor Svetla Dimitrova, director of the Regional ethnographic open museum “Etara” and doctor Igor Lazarenko, director of the Regional history museum in Varna, also attended the event and outlined some good examples of attracting tourists for the sake of cultural tourism.

 
The financial details were discussed by Yura Vitanova, deputy minister of regional development and public works who outlined the possibilities of the “Regional development” program. Bilyana Genova, director of the “Kultura” administration at the Sofia municipality, pitched in with the opportunities within the municipality’s capabilities.

Doctor Angela Pencheva, programme director of the “Balkan heritage” foundation and Nadya Zaharieva, programme director of the “America for Bulgaria” foundation presented more funding opportunities.