DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE TOURIST INDUSTRY

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Bulgaria has huge potential to develop the tourism sector, which already accounts for about 13% of our gross domestic product and has been raised by the government in the national priority as a structure-defining one. In Bulgaria, 335 thousand are employed in tourism and related economic activities, which is almost 11% of all employed in 2017 - more than the international indicators. Over the last three years, the trend of record growth in the whole history of Bulgarian tourism has been steadily established. According to NSI data for the first seven months of 2018, nearly 5.3 million foreign tourists choose Bulgaria as a tourist destination, or almost 7% more than in the same period of 2017. Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation . It transcends traditional roles like sales, marketing, and customer service. Instead, digital transformation begins and ends with how you think about, and engage with, customers. As we move from paper to spreadsheets to smart applications for managing our business, we have the chance to reimagine how we do business — how we engage our customers — with digital technology on our side.The prevailing view is that successful digital transformation depends on changes in strategy, leadership and organizational culture, as well as on the peculiarities of the production and services that companies offer.The purpose of the report is to clarify the nature of digital transformation and the prerequisites for its implementation in the tourism industry, to study the national policy regarding digital transformation in tourism, to analyze the practical steps in this direction and to outline trends in the development of the tourism industry. To achieve this, the authors review publications of researchers and consulting companies on the nature of digital transformation, as well as justify its need for implementation in the travel industry. A number of documents, strategies, reports of the Ministry of Tourism have been studied, as well as materials from conferences, seminars, round tables, discussions and other forums on the transformation of the tourism industry.In the report, we tried to clarify the key concept of digital transformation, to identify the prerequisites for it in the tourism sector, as well as, based on our own research, to discover some real first steps at national level. The change begins in this period, it takes organizational culture, competence, strategy, leadership, partnership and hard work at all levels to achieve a real digital transformation of the tourism industry.