SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE TOURISM POTENTIAL IN BOURGAS DISTRICT Ivan Tcholeev, Maria Vodenska Summary Tourism development is declared a priority in almost all district plans and in a great number of municipal strategies. In fact about half of the country’s territory has a considerable resource potential for tourism development. At the same time it is territorially concentrated, some territories being more attractive than others. There is a need of implementing various approaches for the specific territorial orientation of tourism development. With the help of the spatial analysis places with tourism potential in the district of Bourgas are identified.. The available information on selected criteria is used for the creation of a series of analytical theme maps outlining the zones with possible tourism development according to each of the chosen criteria. Through a systematic analysis of these maps a synthetic map of Bourgas district settlements with good potential for tourism development is constructed towards which the efforts for future tourism development should be directed. Introduction It has been emphasized in the concept of territorial development of tourism (2003) that planning tourism development is largely linked with the planning and policy of regional development. The role of tourism in the socio- economic development of the country and in the achievement of a balanced regional development is getting more and more important. Tourism could influence its associated economic sectors in a positive way and could be one of the main factors in economic growth in the country and a possibility of supporting local and regional development in quite a few local communities. On the other hand, successful development of tourism depends directly on development of other sectors – economics, culture, environment, transportation and communication. In the developing process of planning regional development in Bulgaria on a local, regional and national level, the orientation towards tourism is quite definitive. Tourism is set as a priority branch in almost all regional plans and in a great number of municipal strategies of development after 2000. Tourism is perceived as an important means of regional development and as an opportunity for development by most regions and municipalities in the country (as well as by some national planning documents), although in some cases this is not realistic or at least it is not thought through and substantiated well enough. In the existing planning documents however, no clear indication of tourism territorial distribution is given. Most frequently, the new activities in the framework of the policy of territorial management are directed towards the territories that are the most cultivated and perceived traditionally as the most attractive and having the highest potential for developing tourism. Practically, half of the country’s territory has a great resource potential for developing tourism. At the same time, it is territorially differentiated and concentrated, with some territories more attractive than others. But neither the tourism nor the regional policy give any direction in choosing criteria for outlining the areas with a potential for developing tourism. There is a need of implementing various approaches for the specific territorial orientation of tourism development in separate administrative units. The aim of the investigation is, using the spatial analysis, to identify the zones with a potential for developing tourism in Bourgas district and building up a spatial model of evaluating the potential of developing tourism in it. This is a fragment of the more general task of applying different methods to build up a spatial model, which could be used to make expert assessments of the availability of potentialities for developing an economic branch or for carrying out certain activities on a given territory. The main tasks, set in order to achieve the aim, include: • Formulation and assessment of the signage system; • Definition of tourism potential as a whole and of places with tourism potential in detail; • Development and implementation of objectively verifiable spatial criteria for the choice and territorial determination of areas with tourism potential.