Opportunities for Developing Communist Heritage Tourism in Bulgaria

Abstract

The paper analyses the possibilities to develop communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria. After a review of related literature, the paper identifies five characteristics of communist heritage tourism: ideologically overburdened type of tourism, controversial, represents a limited time period of history, represents a personality cult, concentration of resources in places related with communist history in the country (in cities and the countryside). The paper summarizes some of the most important resources for communist heritage tourism development in Bulgaria and the potential market segments for communist heritage tourist products. The key market segments are considered Bulgarians and Westerners born before 1960 as they were at least 19 years old when communism fell and had clear memories of the period. The final section of the paper presents the structure of a proposed future museum of communism and analyses its three possible locations.

Keywords: communism, heritage, tourism, Bulgaria, museum, tourist resources, segmentation