The Bulgarian Association of Travel Agents was founded in 1992 to assist, represent and protect the economic interests of travel agencies and tour operators in Bulgaria. Regular members of BATA can be any Bulgarian physical and juridical bodies who are professionals with stable experience in the field of travel industry and operate as tour operators and/or travel-agents, with tourism being the main activities of their travel companies. Associated members of BATA can be tourism-related entities. At present, the Association embodies more than 250 members /incl. tour operators and travel agents all over the country, Bulgarian regional tourism structures, affiliated foreign and Bulgarian organisations, individual members, etc./ with the tendency of constant increase. The members of BATA are the most active and reliable travel companies in Bulgaria. They provide 85% of the incoming tourism and 80% of the outgoing tourism of Bulgaria. Their members work actively on German, Russian, British, Scandinavian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Macedonian, etc. markets. In terms of training their members, BATA has applied for and have been approved as a partner in many international projects such as Leonardo da Vinci, PHARE, European Commission’s Research Programs etc. It actively cooperates with Flag, USAID, the Peace Corps etc.

BATA - one of the founder-parties of the Council of Tourism, Sofia

BATA is one of the founder-parties of the Council of Tourism - Sofia, The Council of Training in Tourism at the Sofia University. It takes active part in all the working groups of the National Tourism Board. BATA is a member of the Universal Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA), the Russian RATA, the American ASTA, the Portuguese APAVT and the Japanese JATA. BATA actively collaborates with HATTA /The Hellenic Association of the Tourism & Travel/, TURSAB /Turkish Association of Travel Agencies/, DRBV /The German Union of the Travel Agencies/ etc. BATA is one of the 12 country-founders of the BSTC /Black Sea Co-operation in Tourism/. Its members hold managing positions in BSTC, PATA Chapter, BAAT, Councils of Tourism etc. Among the BATA members are chairmen/vice chairmen, CEOs, directors of international, national, regional and local tourism structures. The main purpose of the Association is to unite the professionalism of the companies involved in forming and marketing the tourist product and providing favourable conditions for collaboration among them in order to achieve sustainable development of Bulgarian tourism industry.

web site: www.batabg.org