From April 19 to 21 Bulgaria’s town of Veliko Tarnovo hosts the traditional international exhibition Cultural Tourism. The 15^th edition of the exhibition will be held at Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports. Over 60 participants will attend the tourism exhibition, including representatives of many foreign embassies in Bulgaria. The Director of the Municipal Tourist Agency “Tsarevgrad Tarnov” Borislav Yordanov told Radio Bulgaria details about the participants and the programme of the event:

The accent in this edition of the exhibition falls on the countries from the Visegrad Group – -the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We are expecting participants from Brazil, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Palestine, the Chinese Cultural Center and many Bulgarian municipalities. Each participant will have the opportunity to present its tourist products and customs on an open stage that will be launched in front of the sports hall. We are trying to change the focus of the event. That is why we urged the municipalities to present important to them tourist attractions and thus reach the end user. Thus, we will help the local tourism, which is of exceptional significance for each country. The exhibition will be opened by the children’s folklore Ensemble Bulgarche from the coastal city of Varna which celebrates its 50^th anniversary in 2018.

The Hungarian folklore ensemble Hírös Agóra, founded in 1976, will be special guest to the exhibition. It consists of 270 people from 11 formations who popularize Hungarian dances and traditions, as well as dances and traditions of other countries and nations from the Carpathian region.

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Tourism will hold a round table dedicated to cultural tourism within the frameworks of the forum. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will organize a conference dedicated to the opportunities for digitalization and presentation of the intangible cultural heritage. On April 21 the exhibition will be closed with the award-winning ceremony of the 6^th edition of the National Contest Read and Travel. The participants will compete in five categories: most original cultural tourism event of 2017, most interesting tourist editions, best website, best posters and most intriguing reports and publications linked with the tourist routes and products presented during the exhibition.

As for the expectations about the tourist season in Bulgaria’s old capital Veliko Tarnovo Borislav Yordanov told Radio Bulgaria that the town welcomed its first foreign tourists at the end of March – several groups of US tourists who visit the town traditionally in the beginning of the tourist season and at the end of the season in September. Since the autumn of 2017 every visitor of Veliko Tarnovo can see the park with small size models of historical monuments from all parts of Bulgaria. Currently there are nearly 80 models on display, but their number has been constantly growing. The models often leave visitors breathless and make them continue their trip across Bulgaria to see these monuments in their real size and environment. In July this year fans of opera can enjoy the emblematic opera festival The Stage of Centuries. Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, the musical Zorro under the music of the famous Latino group Gypsy Kings and Lud Gigiya opera by Parashkev Hadjiev will be part of the programme.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov