MEASURING THE INNOVATION ACTIVITY OF TOURISM BUSINESSES IN BULGARIA

The implementation of innovations in tourism enterprises is a key factor in increasing their competitiveness. A challenge for the tourism businesses in Bulgaria is to develop innovative solutions that will diversify their tourism products, optimize business operations and improve the overall efficiency of the tourism industry. The aim of this research is to systematize and interpret theoretical and empirical statements of innovations in tourism in order to propose and test a model for measuring the innovation activity of tourist enterprises in Bulgaria and, based on this, to formulate conclusions and recommendations. This paper examines the scope of innovation activity of tourism enterprises and measures their innovation activity by means of a proposed model that has been tested in organizations providing tourism-related services. Research methodology includes induction and deduction, method of analysis and synthesis, analogy, content analysis, comparative analysis, survey, etc. As a result of the research, an innovation index is calculated, using the developed Model for measuring innovation activity in tourist enterprises, based on the evaluation of seven groups of qualitative indicators, and conclusions and recommendations are formulated for the promotion of innovation activity in the tourism sector. The tested model shows that it is possible to measure the innovation activity in the tourism sector by covering all enterprises offering the main tourism services.