“Undoubtedly, one of our goals is the digitalization of the sector, and acquiring data literacy is of strategic importance. It is important to work towards investing in the training of teachers in vocational high schools in tourism and pilot universities, which should include in their educational programs the creation of positive attitudes, competence and skills for working with data“, said Minister of Tourism Miroslav Borshosh.
During a meeting between him and the head of the SMARTOURISM.BG project, Dr. Hristo Hristozov, the benefits of good data management for the sustainable development of tourism, the creation of a regional ecosystem for good data management, partnerships with vocational high schools in tourism, universities and municipalities were discussed. The conversation also discussed a proposal to create a working group to prepare an ESTI (Single Data Management System), which would be opened for public access to specific aggregated data. At this stage, an expert consensus is sought on the content disclosure allowed by the system, in relation to the regularity of data collection, and the goal is to have real and practical benefits for the tourism business, industry organizations, researchers and experts.