Tour Guides for Protected Territories in Bulgaria

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March 2018 – December 2019

Co-funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) and the Pirin Tourism Forum

Project budget: total of 104554 EUR

Partners: Terolog GmbH, Germany (Lead partner), BTE, Tourism and Regional Consulting, Germany, and the Pirin Tourism Forum

Territorial range: Nature parks of Rilski Manastir, Belasitsa, Vitosha and Vrachanski Balkan, and the National Park of Central Balkan

Goal: To improve the current situation for both tourists and protected areas by the application of modern guiding systems which bring added value on the spot, making use of the specialized knowledge and skills of the guides from the protected areas who are willing and capable of offering guiding services in parallel to the implementation of their regular obligations.

Implemented activities: assessing the planning of tourism and visitor management in the current Management Plans of the five pilot protected areas; selection of participants among the the experts working in the parks; organization of three consecutive trainings for the selected participants – in marketing, guiding, nature interpretation, tour management and specialized English; development of new thematic trails by the newly trained guides; establishment of a web-platform presenting the trails and guides (www.nature-experience-bulgaria.com); publishing a tourist guidebook, leaflets and souvenirs for the new trails; making of short promotional videos for the parks; organization of a pilot visit of German tourists to the new tourist routes.