Cultural holidays to Bulgaria

Community
Your holiday bookings make a big contribution to the economic state of the towns and villages we cover and in particular Kazanlak Municipality, as the people working in tourism & local shops all benefit from the customers we send there - from hotels, camps, restaurants, bars & shops etc.

All our programmes involve variety of different local suppliers, from transport companies & guides to historical museums & local restaurants. This helps to maintain a high level of employment in our area.

Our Thracian Treasures 2009 tour is run in partnership with a local incoming agency who is heavily involved with local historical and cultural revitalization projects, which focus exclusively on the development of responsible tourism.

The two big project goals are:
1) Regional development models that can be disseminated throughout Bulgaria as a whole, and applicable models that are to be developed through pilot projects which aim is to make attractive and sustainable tourism destinations.

2) Technical transfer, in other words, development of human resourses in the Municipality and the tourism related organizations which will be able to shoulder and sustain regional vitalization.

There are 5 strategies:

Rural tourism strategy
This strategy aims to develop the villages e.g. in Kazanlak Municipality as an attractive rural destination, according to the global tendency for increasing the tourist demand that brings people close to nature, the local people and lifestyle and enjoyable activities.

Roses and herbs strategy
Around 10 000 decorative roses were planted in the recent years jointly with JIKA Project team and Kazanlak Municipality at public places in Kazanlak. The renovated centre of Kazanlak and the entry roads to the town had priority for planting. Self-sustainable rose planting technologies are also transferred to make Kazanlak genuinely live up to its fame as the centre of the Valley of the Roses.

Tourism event strategy
The joint efforts of JIKA and Kazanlak municipality are directed towards the further promotion of the worldwide well-known Rose Festival in Bulgaria, held at the end of May or the first week of June as well as the diversification and the enrichment of programmes and the successful promotion of a new event which celebrates the Valley of the Thracian Kings, in order to increase the tourist inflow all year round.

Specialities strategy
In order to raise the attractiveness of the region as a tourist destination, the JIKA Project Team adopted a strategy for the development of unique local specialities with main motifs: the Rose and the Thracian heritage. As part of the technical transfer, a prototype development and marketing development for regional specialities took place.

Tourism Human Resource Development
The aim of this strategy is: through knowledge enhancement of tourism related human resource together with the dissemination of hospitality to turn Kazanlak and the region into a pleasant attractive tourist centre.

The success is great, as Kazanlak has now become an attractive town which can provide guests with a wealth of experiences and services. About 10 years ago we offered only the Rose museum & Kazanlak Thracian tomb and Kazanlak was just a transit town, now it is in an integral part of our tour.

Teams from around the world currently work and invest, together with Bulgarian archaeology expeditions and artists on projects for the excavations and conservation of the Thracian tombs in Southern Bulgaria and nature protection programmes.

Groups involved include: UNDP offering programmes for tourism and social life: United Nations Development Programmes in Bulgaria - reconstruction of buildings (houses from National Revival period - Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Melnik, etc.) BCAF ( Bulgarian Charities AID Foundation) which is a part of the Global network of CAF with headquarters in UK, is working in Bulgaria for the development of modern philanthropy and has a strong / effective non-profit sector


We oppose the development of mass tourism in any villages / town’s which can not offer sustainable organic growth. We have limited number of people per tours. Our thoughts are with 'quality not quantity.' We treat our 'guests' as our friends and not as numbers. Our passion's of the outdoors are shared between like minded people.

We offer work and employment to the local people and help minimize the brain-drain from small towns to the capital.

Environment
Care of the environment is one of our main concerns, as we want our descendants to enjoy unspoiled nature as we do today. We do our very best to make our guests respect and enjoy our unspoiled nature. One of our most passionate statements is: Please respect nature and do not pollute it. Let your children's children enjoy it too.

We offer information about waste disposal, recycling and how to treat the nature that surrounds the sites / places visited.

We oppose the development of mass tourism in any villages / town’s which can not offer sustainable organic growth. We have limited number of people per tours. Our thoughts are with 'quality not quantity.' We treat our 'guests' as our friends and not as numbers. Our passion's of the outdoors are shared between like minded people.

We offer work and employment to the local people and help minimize the brain-drain from small towns to the capital.

We always try to minimize the impact of our tours. For example: we hike only on marked paths, we don't disturb the wild animals or pick mountain flowers. We always use qualified “local” guides.

We have a green policy in our office. Bookings are done electronically. Receipts/invoices also sent by e-mail. We use re-cycled paper, return our ink cartridges and transmit data as much as possible on USB keys. In our staff kitchen - we re-cycle plastics, tins, bottles.