site.btaTourism Ministry Issues Position Regarding Claims that Bulgaria Advertises Hunting Tourism of Protected Species

On Friday, the Ministry of Tourism issued a statement to the media regarding journalistic reports alleging that the Ministry of Tourism is distributing a pamphlet promoting the hunting of protected animal species as a tourist attraction.

The position explains that the cited booklet "Hunting Tourism in Bulgaria" with official ISBN number 978-619-91759-0-3 was published in 2020 by Glasove.BG EOOD. Part of the circulation of the edition was purchased in the same year by the Tourism Ministry as a finished product.

The Ministry did not participate in the preparation of the content, in the selection of texts and photos, is not the publisher and therefore is not responsible for potential errors made in it.

The Tourism Ministry  currently does not use the publication in its official advertising campaigns and does not present it at the tourist exhibitions in which it participates. The available single copies of the purchased part of the circulation have been downloaded from the Ministry's information centre.

Tourism Minister Ilin Dimitrov ordered an inspection on the matter, including of possible errors in the content. A meeting with the publishers of the book will also be held. Upon establishing data on committed violations, the competent authorities will be notified.

Minister Dimitrov ordered an inspection of all other brochures and other written advertising materials that are used in the Ministry.

"The problem is serious and could compromise Bulgaria on the international markets and to our foreign partners. The Ministry of Tourism takes extremely seriously every issue and case that is directly related to the image of our country as a tourist destination," commented Minister Dimitrov.

The Ministry of Tourism does not engage and does not advertise the hunting of protected species, on the contrary: some of the institution's key policies are related to stimulating the development of sustainable and green tourism.

In the rich palette of different types of tourism, there is also hunting tourism, which is a form of alternative tourism, similar to photo tourism, extreme and adventure tourism, research trips related to geology, ornithology, botany, architecture and archeology, observation of wild animals, etc. A fundamental role in hunting tourism is its practice in strict compliance with the laws and protection of biodiversity and wild species, reads the Tourism Ministry's position.