Revenues from international tourism in Bulgaria for the period January – October 2018 amount to over EUR 3.4 billion, show data of the Bulgarian Central Bank from the end of last year. The firm bond between culture and tourism would provide investments in both sectors, thus boosting greater interest in this country on the part of tourists from different parts of the world. By preserving and popularizing its rich and priceless cultural and historical heritage, Bulgaria could become an even more outstanding tourist destination.With the awareness of the key role of this heritage for Bulgaria’s international image, the Ministry of Culture presented its programme “Cultural entrepreneurship, heritage and cooperation 2014-2021”. The aim of the programme, besides preserving cultural heritage, is to create a new cultural content.

The programme has been worked out after meetings with experts in the sphere of the preservation of cultural heritage and contemporary arts. That is why one of its priorities is related to the movable cultural heritage, which turns the Programme into one of the few such initiatives providing opportunity to present it in a new way, on new premises and by well-trained experts in the exposition grounds, capable of presenting displayed artifacts in a full-fledged way to foreign guests. Good partnership is of special importance for our programme, Amelia Gesheva, Deputy-minister of Culture says for Radio Bulgaria, and adds:

“We hope that around 50 percent of the projects to be filed in, would imply the participation of the donor-country. I am glad to see developing a tendency from the previous programme period, related to the digitalization of cultural heritage. One of the measures of the programme is actually targeted at the digitalization of heritage. An important goal we aim at is the expansion of coverage of the audience the attraction of new public groups to cultural institutions in charge of cultural heritage, such as museums and galleries.”

The financing of the Programme “Cultural entrepreneurship, heritage and cooperation 2014-2021” amounts to 10 million euro, provided by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area. The means in it are supplied by the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Iceland and the Principality of Lichtenstein, and the aim is to reduce economic and social differences in Europe and enhance bilateral relations in the sphere of culture, civil society, good management, basic rights and freedoms among others. 

According to Amelia Gesheva, March will be the period to consider projects focusing on contemporary arts and popularizing traditional culture and crafts. She voices satisfaction with the fact that two organizations have already presented their suggestions in that direction. According to her the candidate projects should accessible for a larger circle of audiences – not only in the capital Sofia but in other regions as well. That is why the programme allows the financing of different festivals and traveling expositions. Some of the projects, put through with the sponsorship of the donor-countries are: the exposition “Legends in gold. Thracian treasures from Bulgaria”, show in the Norwegian city of Bergen – a project for the socialization of cultural heritage developed b Bulgaria’s Kazanlak municipality; as well as a project of Plovdiv municipality for the digitalization of cultural heritage of cultural heritage, which has provided for the opening of centers for digitalization with every museum in the city.

English version: Iva Letnikova