CULTURAL TOURISM AS A TOOL FOR CREATING A POSITIVE IMAGE OF BULGARIA IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The article is devoted to cultural tourism as a factor in the formation of a sustainable image of Bulgaria for the outside world, while strengthening its international competitiveness. The purpose of the study is to identify the possibilities of accumulating "soft power” in Bulgaria through the use of cultural heritage in the tourism sector. For this, the advantages of the country's cultural potential are assessed to improve its international status as a political entity in the international context. The methodology is based on spatial analysis and synthesis by identifying the post-structuralist features of the Bulgarian space in the form of an image. Cultural tourism is seen as a collection of different cultural forms of human travel thanks to the valorized cultural heritage. For this purpose, the cultural potential of Bulgaria has been traced in relation to promising forms of cultural tourism. The cultural heritage of different historical periods is consistently systematized with reference to the geocultural image of the space. The reasons for the development of the national specialization of cultural tourism are substantiated: event, cultural-historical, archaeological, religious, ethnographic, culinary, urban. The priority directions in cultural tourism are presented, which form a bright positive image of Bulgaria, based on characteristic cultural stereotypes and narratives.