|
The
Association presented its activity oriented
to Balkan tourism promotion and reported on
the first six-month office of the Alliance
Bulgarian president before the delegations
of nine countries.
More
than 200 participants from the country and
from other nine Balkan countries got
together at the First official meeting of
the Balkan Alliance of Hotel Associations (BAHA),
which was held on the initiative it the BHRA
under the auspices of the president of the
Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov in
Albena resort from 2 to 5 June of this year.
Representatives from Rumania, Serbia,
Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Ukraine, Croatia and Bulgaria
participated in this initiative. Delegations
of Balkan countries were led by:
- Mr.
Branko Krivokapich - President of
the Serbian hotel and restaurant
association of Serbia;
- Mr.
Doncho Tanevski - President of Hotel
association of Macedonia;
- Mrs.
Dragitsa Drekalovich - President of
Hotel association of Montenegro;
- Mr.
Yon Andrey - President of tourist
association of Romania;
- Mr.
Amir Hadzhich - President of Hotel
association of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
- Mrs.
Tamara Evdokimova - Deputy general
director of hotel association of
Ukraine;
- Mrs.
Tereza Veraya - representative of
the delegation of hoteliers of Croatia;
- Mr.
Blagoy Ragin - Chairman of the BHRA;
- Mr.
Zakaria Zgoli - President of hotel
association of Tunisia - special guest
at the meeting, etc.
A welcome letter
from the President of the Republic of
Bulgaria - Mr. Georgi Parvanov was
communicated to the participants in the
First official meeting of BAHA. Balkan
countries participants were welcomed by the
deputy minister of the economic and energy -
Mrs. Anna Yaneva; by the deputy minister of
foreign affairs - Mrs. Evgenya Koldanova; by
Mr. Ivo Marinov - Director of "Tourist
policy" Division of the State tourist agency
and on behalf of the hosts of the
international event - Mrs. Sonya Stoycheva -
deputy director of "Marketing and sales"
division of Albena resort.
The following
persons were amongst the guests from
Bulgaria and Balkan countries - Mr. Sasho
Andonovsky - deputy minister of economic of
Macedonia, Momchil Neshkovich - deputy
minister of the Ministry of commerce and
tourism of Serbia, Spirko Nikolovsky -
deputy mayor of Ohrid, Branko Asesky -
president of the Business Chamber of
Macedonia, Mrs. Livia Sima - deputy
secretary of state and deputy chairwoman of
the National tourist agency, Magdalena
Argaseala - tourist association of Romania,
Boris Mardzhonovich - executive director of
hotel association of Montenegro, Mrs.
Yordanka Fandakova - deputy mayor of Sofia,
Mr. Vitan Ivanov - chairman of the Tourist
council - Sofia, Ass. Prof. Marin Neshkov -
chairman of Varna tourist chamber, Mr.
Blagovest Lefterov - deputy chairman of BATA
and executive director of "Sunshine tours",
Mrs. Maria Yordanova - president of
Bulgarian hotel association, Mr. Stoyan
Marinov - executive director of "Tourexpo-Varna".
BHRA delegation
included also members of Association
Managing board: Mrs. Ivelina Grozeva, Mrs.
Elena Ivanova - Chairwoman of the
Association of owners - Sunny beach, Mr.
Dimitar Lefterov - Chairman of VARH, Mrs.
Lyudmila Nenkova - executive director of
Riviera resort, Mr. Pavel Naydenov, Mr. Ivan
Alexandrov, as well as tens of BHRA members
from all over the country.
The main
emphases in the meeting agenda was placed on
the activity of Alliance member states,
feasible development changes in tourist
business on the Balkans, specific steps
towards alteration of the view on the
Balkans through presenting the region as a
common tourist destination. Members of the
delegations discussed the issue of a joint
advertising and common presentation of the
member states of the organization in
international markets as an option to
attract more tourists from Europe and from
all over the world.
"Because of visa
requirements currently we are losing at
least 10 to 15 percent of solvent tourists
from Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. If
the visa requirements get repealed, we will
bring money back to Bulgaria", the BHRA
Chairman and BAHA president Mr. Blagoy Ragin
shared with the participants. - "This year
we are expecting to welcome about 5,5
million tourists, but visitors might reach
10 million, provided that our infrastructure
is all right". Very soon two new consular
offices shall be opened - respectively in
Macedonia and Serbia, announced before the
participants in the meeting the deputy
minister of foreign affairs Mrs. Evgenia
Koldanova.
Balkan Alliance
is in a position of insist before the state
authorities of the respective countries to
apply simplified to the maximum visa regimes
between them, stressed the deputy minister
of economy of Maceodnia Mr. Sasho Andonovsky
in his extensive statement within the scope
of the discussions during the meeting in
Albena resort.
Free movement of
capital and people and making the peninsula
even more attractive for European tourists -
these topics were discussed during the first
official meeting and in the lobby by the
delegations of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia,
Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Croatia and Ukraine.
Participants in this meeting shared the
common idea, that individually considered
Balkan countries are too small to be able to
compete in the global market, and only
jointly they can be competitive. Balkan
hotels organization shall try to negotiate
general prices of tourist products in the
region; presidents of Balkan associations
shared their further steps within Alliance
activities at the briefing with mass media
upon closing the discussions. Each country
shall prepare a catalogue containing prices
of holidays at hotels of different
categories, and BAHA subsequently shall
invite their colleagues in order to discuss
and consult price levels "from - to",
announced Doncho Tanevsky before
journalists. Achieving an agreement about
the prices is the greatest challenge,
commented the president of the hotel
association of Tunisia Mr. Zakaria Zgoli.
In his speech in
his capacity of the president of BAHA Blagoy
Ragin suggested an overview of
establishment, first steps and problems
which BAHA had got to face. Part of the
accomplished works up to now was presented
to the participants - such as Alliance logo,
its new web site, the printed VIP edition
about Balkans, dedicated to this event -
produced by the Advertising Agency "FIL",
being the meeting sponsor. The web site (www.balkanalliance)
presents all member states of the Alliance -
it includes presentation of their hotel
associations, their chairpersons and
managing bodies, with a large photo gallery
of Balkan countries. With the cooperation of
BHRA tens of releases are uploaded, which
Bulgarian mass media have published up to
now concerning BAHA establishment and
activity. The team, having developed the web
site of the Alliance was warmly applauded
and much admired by the participants and
representatives of Balkan delegations.
Amongst the
numerous comments and shared views during
the First official meeting of the Alliance
worth mentioning those of Mr. Branko
Krivokapich - president of the hotel and
restaurant association of Serbia, of Mrs.
Dragitsa Drekalovich - president of the
hotel association of Montenegro, of Mr. Yon
Andrey - president of the tourist
association of Romania, of Mr. Amir Hadzhich
- president of the hotel association of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, of Mr. Blagovest
Lefterov from Bulgaria, of Mr. Hristo Roglev
- member of Ukrainian hotel association, of
Mrs. Teresa Veraya - a member of the
delegation of Croatian hoteliers, of Mr.
Stoyan Marinov from Bulgaria, etc. Amongst
the most applauded comments were those,
presented by the deputy minister of the
economic of Macedonia - Mr. Sasho Andonovsky
and of the special guest of the meeting -
Mr. Zakaria Zgoli - president of hotel
association of Tunisia.
"The key problem
in the tourist business in all the countries
on the Balkan peninsula is availability of
qualified people. Therefore, the task for
the Balkan Alliance of hotel associations is
to develop general educational and training
programs. Thus in all the countries -
members of the Alliance, we will guarantee,
that we offer a high quality product. In
addition, we shall have to coordinate our
legislative acts related to tourist field,
which shall guarantee to foreign tourists,
that a four star hotel for instance is the
same in every country. A group of competent
experts from the member states shall be set
up in order to develop a general strategy
based on the existing national ones. The
time frame for its preparation is within two
years, because, instead of fixing short
terms, we would rather work out something
valuable and practically applicable" -
stated for the media Mr. Doncho Tanevsky -
president of hotel association of Macedonia
and president-to-be of the Alliance in the
period July - December 2006.
"One of the key
objectives of the Alliance is to present
Balkans as a common tourist destination.
This is because difficulties in tourist
business result from the problem with the
infrastructure, customs regimes, etc., which
are as much national, as they are general
for the Balkans. It is therefore a good idea
to work on a regional level in respect of
trans-boarder cooperation" - Romanian
delegation representatives stated.
The hosts from
Albena resort announced before the
participants, that they were expecting an
increase of 20% of French tourists in this
season. The number of Romanian tourists will
increase by 15 per cent, and 12 per cent
will be the growth of tourists from
Scandinavian countries, 14 per cent more of
Russian tourists and 6 per cent more
visitors from Central and East Europe. The
shares of English and German market shall be
kept as they were in 2005. The estimated
growth of accommodation in 2006 in the
resort is 5 per cent.
A unique VIP
edition of "Balkanica" was presented at the
first official meeting. The book was defined
as a cultural and editorial phenomenon,
because by means of more than 1000 post
cards and stamps history, culture, festivals
and legends of Balkan countries are
presented. Institution of BAHA and unique
photographs showing the establishment of the
Alliance in Ohrid in September 2005 are
included in the edition.
Especially for
the book, which is being issued for the
first time on the Balkans, greetings bearing
the signature of the president of the
Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov, of
the chairman of the State tourism agency Mr.
Mario Al.Dzhiburi, of the executive director
of Plovdiv International Fair - Mr. Yordan
Radev, of the chairman of BHRA and president
of BAHA - Mr. Blagoy Ragin and of the
president of Macedonian hotel association
and vice president of the Alliance - Mr.
Doncho Tanevsky. The author of the unique
edition of the publishing house "FIL" is the
well-known expert Mr. Boris Kalinkov;
general consultant is Associated professor
Dr. Sonya Alexieva, reviewer is Mr. Spas
Panchev - chairman of Bulgarian philately
academy. The special greeting address of the
vice president of the World philately
federation, Mr. Yosef Wolf, is also
published in the book.
Within the scope
of the event a contact market was arranged,
at which hoteliers and tour operators from
the participating delegations demonstrated
their professional abilities and
wide-ranging tourist products of their
countries. Balkan guests showed interest in
the original products and services offered
by the event sponsors, provided by BHRA,
which contributed with their professional
participation to the contact market
following discussions closing.
For the guests
from Balkan countries and from Bulgaria the
hosts - sponsors from Albena resort had
organized first official dinner at the
elegant restaurant "Blue sky" on the 17th
floor of hotel "Dobrudzha" which is the
symbol of the resort. Amongst the sponsors
of the event was also Mr. Dimitar Lefterov -
member of the Managing board of BHRA and
chairman of BARH, who was welcoming numerous
guests of the association to the restaurant
complex "Dimyat" in Varna. The closing
dinner before leaving of the delegations,
hosted by BHRA, surprised all the gusts in
the luxury resort of "Riviera", where they
were welcomed personally by the executive
director of the complex - Mrs. Lyudmila
Nenkova.
Here, under the
applauses of all participants, the president
of BAHA - Mr. Blagoy Ragin symbolically
"handed over" the next mandate to Mr. Doncho
Tanevsky from Macedonia in his capacity of
vice president of the Alliance, and on his
behalf he invited the next vice president -
Mr. Branko Krivokapich from Serbia to take
his place. On behalf of all attending
delegations of Balkan countries Mr. D.
Tanevsky thanked Mr. Ragin and his
colleagues from BHRA for the successful
initial steps in BAHA activity and accepted
with appreciation the honorable plaque of
the association. On behalf of the State
tourism agency Mr. Ivo Marinov handed over
to all delegations chairmen special symbols.
BHRA team has prepared also a quiz with
questions, related to cultural and
historical heritage and the modern history
of Balkans and awarded a lot of original
prizes, provided by the sponsors of the
First official meeting of BAHA.
Media partner of
the First official meeting of BAHA was the
newspaper "Capital", and tens of journalists
from national and regional printed and
electronic media reported on the event from
Albena resort. Apart from numerous TV
reports about the meeting, Bulgarian
National TV dedicated its business program
"The week" of the 5th June of this year to
this actual event, organized by BHRA.
Balkan Alliance
of hotel associations (BAHA) was established
on 17 September 2005 in Ohrid on the
initiative of Bulgarian hotel and restaurant
association. Members - founders of the
Alliance are hotel and restaurant
associations of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia,
Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania
and Montenegro. As the first president of
the Alliance was elected the chairman of
BHRA - Mr. Blagoy Ragin (with the first
office for the period from 1 January - 1
July 2006) who, according to the Articles of
Association of the organization, will be
replaced by Mr. Doncho Tanevsky from
Macedonia (for the period from 1 July - 31
December 2006), and the vice president of
BAHA in the same period will be Mr. Branko
Krivokapich from Serbia.
|
