Maxim Behar with a comment on the topic "Will Elon Musk come to Bulgaria"

Host: I continue to ask whether a possible visit of Elon Musk to Bulgaria is more real or more of a dream. This is a question for our next guests - the PR expert Maxim Behar and Rumen Draganov - Director of the Institute for Analyzes and Evaluations in Tourism. Is it realistic for Musk to come to Bulgaria or is it a fantasy?

Maxim: I've been having a lot of fun with this grotesque for the past week. All this looks like an absurd play to me, that's more than clear. I don't know if you remember, but in the early 80's there was a Bulgarian movie "Whale" in which a Bulgarian ship caught a sprat. However, passing it from institution to institution this sprat turns into a whale. I never imagined that I would be able to watch this film live in Bulgaria. The fact that Elon Musk liked a photo of the beautiful Belogradchik rocks means nothing. First, no one can expect Elon Musk to manage his Twitter account by himself. This sprat became a whale - "he's coming, now he's going to pour some billions..."

Host: Mr. Behar, you have thrown a cold shower from the first minutes of this conversation. The Minister of Tourism himself writes that he will send a Bulgarian who will personally deliver the invitation to Elon Musk. You are an expert in communication, will this way of communicating with a billionaire succeed?

Maxim: Please, we are serious people after all. Musk is welcome in Bulgaria. God Bless, we will welcome him in April, God Bless it is after the ministers of tourism and culture do their job. Instead of sending people over to Elon Musk to invite him, there's a whole lot of things that need to be done. Bulgaria does not have a good tourism logo. I won't say what it looks like. Bulgaria has no tourism slogan, no vision for the tourism for 2023. Let them all come, Bill Gates - all are welcome, but there are far more important things to do. And instead of making a whale out of the sprat, we need to sit down and really grow that sprat, so it becomes a little bit more.

Maxim: It is not serious to talk about Musk!

Host: Wait a minute, you are good friends with Solomon Passy, right? He will criticize you for what you say! He will say "Why doesn't Musk come to Bulgaria?"

Maxim: He's welcome if he really wants to come. And not just Elon Musk. Now there was talk here about the North-West, about how poor a region it is, about this lovely village and about the restaurant and everything else. In Bulgaria we talk, we see these things. Bulgarian tourism, our promotion abroad, the things we need to do for foreign tourists to come and like Bulgaria more, in my opinion, there is a far more serious vision, a far more serious strategy that needs to be developed.

Host: What is your advice to the current Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov?

Maxim: To transfer a large part of his powers to the Bulgarian Tourism Board, which, in my opinion, should manage tourism in Bulgaria, not the Ministry. The National Tourism Board, which has great professionals, should have a decisive say in the promotion and advertising of Bulgaria. My advice to the minister is as soon as possible to hold a competition for a good, nice, designer, simple, clear and memorable logo for Bulgaria. To have a contest for a slogan, for a message that Bulgaria sends to foreigners, to have a consensus around this logo and this slogan, and only then think about how to upgrade and how to develop a strategy and everything else. If he comes, he is welcome. If he comes, I will be the first to welcome him. If Mr. Minister gets on the plane and goes to invite him personally. However, before that, there are a million things we need to do ourselves.

Host: Thank you very much for your participation. Let's not call Musk, let's call the will.