site.btaNumber of Trips of Bulgarians Abroad Surpasses Pre-Pandemic Levels, Visits from Abroad Lag Behind

Bulgarians travelled abroad more in August this year compared to the same month of the pre-pandemic year 2019, but visits by foreigners lagged behind, shows a check on the website of the National Statistical Institute on Friday.

In August 2024, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was around 903,400 or 8.3% above the registered in August 2023. Аn increase was registered in the trips with holiday and recreation purposes - by 19.6%, and with professional purposes - by 3.0%, while those with other purposes (as a guest, education, and visiting cultural and sports events) decreased by 3.6%.

The trips with holiday and recreation purposes formed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 52.4%, followed by those with other purposes - 34.8%, and with professional purposes - 12.8%.

The number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was some 2.1 million, or 2.8% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year. Аn increase was registered in the trips with holiday and recreation purposes - by 6.2%, while those with professional purposes and with other purposes decreased by 2.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Transit passes through the country were 38.3% of all visits of non-residents to Bulgaria.

Most visits to Bulgaria were made from: Romania - some 365,500, Turkiye - 303,300 Germany - 245,500, Ukraine - 211,600, Poland - 107,400, Serbia -
95,100, the Netherlands - 70,600, Greece - 67,300, the UK - 66,900, Czechia - 58,900.

In August 2019, visits by country were similar, except for those by Russian nationals. The largest number of visits to Bulgaria in August 2019 were made by citizens from Romania (373,100), Turkiye (290,000), Germany (251,000), Greece (163,700), Ukraine (122,000), Poland (110,800), the UK (97,400), Russia (97,100), Serbia (78,400), France (69,700).