Strengths

• Within the region are united many municipalities, local districts and authorities. The common interest makes an important balance for implementation of partnership activities and long term cooperation.
• Within the region as part of all local initiatives are involved people with strong motivation. Cooperation on wide basis has been started – private business, NGOs and institutions.
• All municipalities have working tourist information centers. This establish the necessary conditions for good communication and coordination of common tourist activities.

Weaknesses

• Most of the active professionals within the region in the tourism field still have not good communication between each other and no active professional networks exist for the region.
• The most usual partnerships are between municipalities, and the conditions for direct participation of other stakeholders are very weak.
• There are very weak mechanism for collecting feedback from visitors in the region.
• The tourism field is still not very popular as a source for main of additional income among the local population, and the region is not very popular as a tourist destination at national and international level.

Opportunities

• The rich and well preserved natural and cultural resources in the region. They create conditions for wide varieties of tourist services in the region.
• There is a trans-border partnership agreement signed in 2006 between Bulgaria and Serbia for common development of the local tourism on both side of the border and common policy for management and preservation of the shares local natural resources.
• The European Union funds spread in Bulgaria via the operational programs and the international EU funds for regional development, especially for marginal EU regions create new opportunities for reaching additional financials expect the local income in order to develop new services for the region.

Threats

• The weak information channels among the stakeholders from West Stara Planina can be described as a threat for the development of the region.
• The corruption at different national and international levels Bulgaria and Serbia, the specific rules and strong bureaucracy as part of the process of dissemination of the EU and national funds are a strong threat for the active involvement of local stakeholders.
• The local municipalities still don’t have enough strong lobby at national and international fields.
• The four years mandate of the mayors and part of the municipal administration is also a serious      threat for the process of development of sustainable and long term tourist services, especially when is expected support from the municipality.