site.btaBulgarians' Trips Abroad, Foreigners' Trips to Bulgaria Up in December 2023 Y/Y

In December 2023, the number of trips of Bulgarians abroad was 649,100 or 7.3% more year-on-year, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) reported on Monday. The number of trips of Bulgarians abroad and visits of foreigners to Bulgaria in December 2023 exceeded on an annual basis both the previous year's number and the results of the pre-pandemic 2019, which in itself was a good year for tourism.

An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered - holiday and recreation, professional and others. According to data from the NSI, 529,300 Bulgarians travelled in December 2019, a 10.6% increase compared to December of the previous year.

In December 2023, the number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was 785,400 or 3.1% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year.

Most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to:

• Turkiye – 173,700
• Greece – 119,100
• Romania – 62,500
• Serbia – 59,400
• Germany – 42,100
• North Macedonia – 25,700
• Austria – 21,900
• Italy – 20,600
• The United Kingdom – 18,800
• Spain – 13,400

The trips with other purposes (as a guest, for education, attending cultural and sports events) composed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarians abroad - 44.8%, followed by trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 33.5%, and with professional purpose - 21.7%.

The share of visits of ЕU citizens was 52.8% of the total number of non-residents’ visits to Bulgaria and reached 414,600, the largest being by visitors from Romania - 38.2%, and Greece - 30.4%. The visits of non-residents in the group ‘Other European countries’ were 314.600, or 40.1% of all visits to Bulgaria. The highest number of visits from Turkiye - 162,000, or 51.5% in this group,

Most visits to Bulgaria were from:

• Turkiye – 162,000
• Romania – 158,300
• Greece – 126,100
• Ukraine – 52,300
• Serbia – 42,300
• Germany – 34,500
• North Macedonia – 34,300
• Italy – 22,200
• The United Kingdom – 15,700
• Austria – 12,800.