Cultural impacts resulting from the development of traditional forms of tourism have certain lasting effects on host communities. They arise as a result of the ongoing direct and indirect interrelations with tourist services, as for various reasons, host communities often suffer negatives. Especially where tourism development brings changes in values and behavior, thus endangering local identity. Responds to community structures, family and gender relations, customs, traditional way of life, moral principles .

The study of  the ongoing interrelations between culture and tourism in this context is admirable field for scientific work. The emphasis on Southwestern Bulgaria and in particular on Blagoevgrad to great extent increases the project proposal relevance. Primarily with the view that the region has a industries priority-oriented towards tourism. On its territory there are well known established tourist destinations such as Sandanski, Melnik, Bansko, etc.

Therefore, this project sets a primary goal to identify those effects of tourism, which cause change or loss of local identity and values guiding the research  in three main areas , namely: (i) commercialization of local culture , (ii) cultural standardization ( iii) adapting  culture according to tourists expectations. And on this basis we intent exploring traditional practices that preserve cultural identity of the area and represent them in  a classified catalog. The student community involvement in the project research work will increase student satisfaction of their ongoing training in Department of Economics at Southwestern University. Where, as an additional result can be the educational process promotion in the Department of Economics at the market of educational services, as well as increasing its competitiveness on regional and European level.