THE INICIATIVE EUROPEAN CAPITALS OF

CULTURE - CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

AHEAD DESTINATION BULGARIA
M A R I YA S TA N KO VA SWU Neoofit Rilski, Tourism Department,
I VA N K A VA S E N S K A Faculty of Economics,
2700, Blagoevgrad Bulgaria
D I M I T R I A U Z U N OVA
The initiative European City of Culture
- launched at intergovernmental level in 1985 (Resolution of the Ministers responsible for
Cultural Affairs, meeting within the Council, of 13 June 1985 concerning the annual event
'European City of Culture') as of June 13, on fourth official meeting of the Council Ministers of
culture was decided to initiate it.
- on the same meeting, the first European City of Culture - Athens was elected.
- actually, at the outset initiative is called "European City of Culture."
- since 1999 the event became popular under the title "European Capital of Culture" (ECOC) and
ever since 2004 this has been its official wording.
- since 1985 more than 40 cites received the right and honor to be titled European Capital of
Culture - from Athens, Istanbul, Stockholm and Genoa to Glasgow, Krakow, Porto. It has been
expected by 2019 the number of city-capitals to reach 60.
A brief overview of the initiative
The legal text that regulates the election of cities
Capitals of Culture is embedded in Decision
1622/20060/EC which was amended in 2014.
That sets foremost objectives and criteria of the
initiative European Capital of Culture as well as
provides all required application documents.
Candidates are evaluated by Selection Committee by
specific objectives and criteria for the nomination,
have to provide comparability according to the
parameters set out in the Decision.
The criteria are divided into two categories:
(i) "European dimension" and
(ii) "City and Citizens".
A brief overview of the Bulgarian experience
The European Capital of Culture (ECOC) competition is organized by the
European Commission. Two cities in two host countries are selected each
year.
For 2019, the host countries are Bulgaria and Italy.
Four Bulgarian cities, Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Sofia, and Varna, took part in
the final selection stage of the contest European Capital of Culture 2019.
September, 2014 a jury of experts visited the four Bulgarian cities to assess
their preparedness to implement the cultural program envisaged in the
application forms.
Plovdiv won and will be the first European capital city from Bulgaria.
As winner, the city will be awarded a total of EUR 1.5 M in 2019 by the
European Commission in support of its cultural strategy.
Plovdiv, a remarkable city and European Capital of Culture
2019.
Known as the oldest living city in Europe, Plovdiv offers
impressive history, culture, architecture and art.
Plovdiv is the administrative center of the South Central Region,
which includes five regional administrations.
The town is one of the oldest cities in Europe, where ages,
ethnicities and religions amazingly coexist and this different faces
rightly define it as the cultural capital of Bulgaria. Its rich cultural,
historical and archaeological heritage, as well as its atmosphere
makes it a center of attraction and an attractive destination for
cultural tourism.
Along come the modern investments in the city, EU projects,
industrial zones, e-governance, which make this city a nice place for
living, but also a great example to learn from

#Plovdiv full of emotions: https://youtu.be/OIb_s84pXIM?t=6

Undiscovered Plovdiv: Bulgaria's Most Enjoyable City: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P85R9u_N1nU

http://w0.fast-meteo.com/locationmaps/Plovdiv.8.gif
Plovdiv, a remarkable city and European Capital of
Culture, 2019.

Plovdiv is situated along the two banks of the river

Maritza on 7 of picturesque hills (called tepe by the local
people) that are part of the towns charm and beauty.
There is a kind of magic in Plovdiv in all seasons. The town
is always unique and fascinating. In the winter it is
fabuously white; in the spring it is covered with green and
flowers, in the summer it is almost unreal in the ghastly
heat of Thracia, in the autumn it is calm and placid, with
ripe figs and sweet grapes dropping into soft foliage...
Plovdiv can hardly be described in simple words... One
should see it and feel its unique atmosphere in order to
understand it.
Plovdiv 2019 or "how to attract the locals and foreign tourists?

Challenges in front of Plovdiv and Bulgaria as tourist destinations - it is

essential to find the answer to the question "how to attract the locals and
foreign tourists?.
This is directly related to the cultural attractiveness of the city. Therefore, the
study focuses on the cultural profile of Plovdiv, outputted through research
and comparison of the corresponding perceptions of locals, tourists and
representatives of the tourist industry.
The appropriate approach relates on the establishment of the assessments
opinion of overlapping degree by locals, tourists and industry representatives
in connection with the investigation of destinations cultural profile.
The methodological apparatus of the research - description, diagnosis,
analysis, comparison, synthesis, induction and deduction on the results of a
conducted survey display links and dependencies in perceptions about the
destination of the three parties mentioned.
Plovdiv 2019 or "how to attract the locals and
foreign tourists?
For purposes of defining cultural profile of Plovdiv, a number of the
research criteria were used: Their selection is determined by the
extent to which they cover specific cultural
profile characteristics and describe the
peculiarities of profiling, as well as key
aspects associated with it.

As verbally expressed measure, the

criteria are an expression of subjective
value judgments of evaluators and in this
sense they are a matter of personal
interpretation of the cultural profiles
elements.

Source: Authors own classification, 2014.

Plovdiv 2019 or "how to attract the locals and foreign tourists?

The data was collected by the questionnaire method.

The survey covered main aspects of Plovdiv cultural
tourism image perception by the three surveyed groups.
The aim was to clarify to what extent the respondents
believed that Plovdiv is culturally shaped and is its
consumers cultural needs considered and satisfied.
The following data analysis determines to what extent the
perceptions of the three groups overlap in terms of these
17 criteria was used to assess the cultural profile of the city.
The graphic represents to what extent locals, tourists and
the tourism industry assessments overlap in terms of the
cultural profile of Plovdiv, respectively for each of the
criteria used.

Source: Uzunova, 2014

 Plovdiv 2019 or "how to attract the locals and foreign tourists?

It is notable that the strongest divergence in respondents

assessments was observed in C4, C15, C17, C13 and C12 as
displayed in Table 1.
With regards to this finding, particular attention should be
paid to the promotion of the destination Plovdiv and its
overall profile presentation as cultural tourism destination.
(Uzunova, 2014).
The displayed degree of assessments overlapped in the
implemented research criteria, gives grounds to assert that
there was no high diffusion of profile, without this finding
to mean that the maximum scores in terms of destination
profile clarity was achieved.
As a summary
As the first Bulgarian city ever to have been awarded the title of ECOC, the title has
helped to draw attention to Plovdiv at a national level, not only in terms of culture
and tourism, but also for economic development.
There are new possibilities, but they are linked to a necessity of changes towards
definitive cultural profiling and purposeful (tourism) communication together with
the obtained results about the cultural profile of Plovdiv.
Achieving this would be impossible without co-operation between all stakeholders in
the process of creating the authenticity of cultural tourism supply. Together with
shaping the cultural supply and destination cultural profile construction via
conducting PR or advertising campaigns, focusing on the distinctive characteristics
and unique features of the destination, that could be just the core part of the
measures, potentially increasing the perceptions of the city as a destination for
cultural tourism.
Such an approach is imperative bearing in mind the short time until 2019, when
town of Plovdiv and Bulgaria could take advantage from the cultural capital effect
and allow visitors to discover not only the destination nevertheless, but to appreciate
Bulgaria as Europes and worlds cultural diversity, history and values.
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4osAAOSwIjNXJBiU/s-l300.jpg
Plovdiv to be 2019 European Capital of Culture in
Bulgaria

Thank you for your attention!