Ilin Dimitrov, the tourism minister of Bulgaria, reported about day 1 of the XXII Global Meeting of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) took place in London, England.
This is the most extensive WTTC travel and tourism event globally.
52 More than 2500 delegates and tourism ministers from 52 countries are present during the event.
Dimitrov said that I’m highly impressed by the level of the event as they took care of every single detail. With its claim to reach 120,000,000 tourists annually by 2030, Saudi Arabia clearly wants to be a leading country in the region.
Dimitrov reported the activities conducted during the event. He noted,
“I took part in the panel Global Leaders. Together with 15 other ministers and 10 CEOs of the world’s biggest companies, we commented on the challenges facing tourism. Here I represented Bulgaria; I showed that we are blessed by God and a destination for four seasons with unique natural gifts”.
The Secretary-General of UNWTO and WTTC also attended the meeting. Dimitrov had a bilateral meeting with Princess Haifa Al-Saud. They outlined the framework of their future visit to Bulgaria in February and commented on how we can increase the volume of tourist flow from there.
He emphasizes that Saudi Arabia has exceptionally great potential (nearly 30 million population with serious financial opportunities), but the number of tourists from there is below 2000 people.
Dimitrov explained, ”During our visit with the Minister of Tourism, we reached an agreement to form a delegation with representatives of Saudi tourism companies”.
Dimitrov also attended a meeting with the director of FlyNas Airlines. They are a low-budget airline with a fleet of over 300 aircraft.
He mentioned that the agreement had reached 99% for about 5,000 seats, which after talks with businesses in Bulgaria, hesitated whether to realize.
The main issue was the sluggish issuance of visas, which needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. Dimitrov appreciated the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who committed to making this period as short as possible.