EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND 2007-2013
MINISTRY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
OPERATIONAL PROGRAM “DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES”
The contract for the start of the project “Design thinking in the sphere of tourism” was signed on the 29-th of February 2012. The project is implemented under grant scheme: BG051PO001-7.0.01 “WITHOUT BORDERS- COMPONENT 1”.
The coordinator of the project is Know and Can Association- Sofia and partners within it are: ASSOCIATION OF RHODOPEAN MUNICIPALITIES- Smolyan, Bulgaria and CIBER ESPACIO SL- La Coruna- Spain.
The project was aimed at the management staff of small and medium hotels in the Rhodope region (most of which are owned by family business and represent a vital source of incomes for the local population). According to data from the research conducted in Bulgaria under “Next Generation Takes Charge” project within the Lifelong Learning Program, people don’t spend enough attention on the family business in the country and its development. The necessity of planning for the future, improvement of the financial, organizational and communication structure as well as implementation of improvements in the legal conditions are indicated as basic needs of the Bulgarian family business.
The project provided an opportunity to improve the existing management systems in the field of tourism and hotels by training managers on the innovations in the management, sales and marketing sectors. It also developed and applied a strategy for development in the region that should facilitate the tourism business and the achievement of high business results by the use of IT, social media and design thinking.
The planned project activities were aimed at introducing the representatives of small and medium hotels to modern good practices and opportunities for optimization of business results. Also they should offer innovative solutions aimed at more effective management, cheap advertising, increasing the quality of the offered services and realization of more sales.
For 18 months the following essential activities were implemented:
• A research and analysis of the condition of small and medium hotel business in the Rhodope region
• A forum about the project, a page and a profile in Facebook were created.
• A contest for best conception for the development of the hotel business in the Rhodope region was made. It was aimed at hotels’ managers.
• Training on Design thinking was held in Spain. The winners of the contest took part in it.
• Three partner meetings were held. During them the progress of the project and the implementation of activities in compliance with the schedule were discussed.
• Four workshops were organized in the village of Momchilovtsi- during them all results of the implemented activities were presented as well as the approach of Design thinking and the opportunities of social media to popularize the small and medium business in the Rhodope region
• Other project results are: a research among 61 small and medium hotels, analysis of the research and a report on the condition of small and medium hotels, a conception for the development of the hotel business in the region, a prototype of strategy for the development of the region and a final version of the strategy, three reports for evaluation and recommendations to the project;
• More than 10 meetings with stakeholders were organized within the framework of the project
• A digital network of hotels was created. Over 200 hotels from the Rhodope region are included in it.
• More than 100 hotels have joined the common network created in Pinterest
• More than 1500 dissemination materials about the project were distributed
• Information about the project was published in national and regional media