Innovation and Digitalization in Tourism - Restriction or Development for Business in Bulgaria

The purpose of this publication is to explore the opportunities that innovation and digitization provide in tourism. Although digitization is not a new direction in tourism, its understanding and use in a number of cases is hampered by the lack of knowledge and skills in the field. The aim has been achieved by exploring secondary sources on the specificities of innovation activity and digitization. Systematic approach, observation, abstraction, as well as some general science principles such as objectivity, dialectic, concretization, unity between theory and practice, system analysis, induction, deduction and others are also applied. A qualitative expert analysis of the websites of tourist sites has been carried out to determine the level of digitization in the tourism sector. The survey results show that tourist sites focusing on innovative supply to their customers use modern information technologies as well as technologies directly involved in improving the supply of tourism services, including traditional products, services and know-how. Consumer value is increased by providing product innovations, place and promotion. It comes to the conclusion that, despite the benefits of innovation and digitization, they are not a panacea that can solve all the emerging problems of today's business, and in many cases are a limiting factor.