site.btaBulgarian Residents' Trips Abroad Up 12% in December 2024, Foreigners' Trips to Bulgaria Up 6.1%

In December 2024, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 727, 200, or 12% above the registered in December 2023. An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered, the National Statistical Institute said on Tuesday.

In December 2024, the number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was 833,300, or 6.1% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year. A 20% increase was registered in the trips with holiday and recreation purposes, 7.7% increase in the trips with professional purposes, while those with other
purposes decreased by 1.3%. Transit passes through the country were 35.5% (295,900) of all visits of non-residents to Bulgaria. 

Most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to: Türkiye (198,500), Greece (132,000), Romania (75,600), Serbia (68,700), Germany (49,200), North Macedonia (27,700), Austria (23,200), Italy (21,300), the United Kingdom (20,000), Spain (14,900). 

The trips with other purposes formed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad (44.8%), followed by those with holiday and recreation purposes (34.9%), and with professional purposes (20.3%). 

The share of visits of EU citizens was 54.7% of the total number of non-Bulgarian residents’ visits to Bulgaria and reached 455,600, the largest being by visitors from Romania (35.6%), and Greece (29.5%).

The visits of non-Bulgarian residents from other European countries were 315,100 or 37.8% of all visits to Bulgaria. The highest registered number of visits was from Türkiye 161,000 (51.1% of visits of non-Bulgarian citizens from other European countries).

The predominant share of the visits to Bulgaria in December 2024 was with other purposes (53.3%), followed by trips with holiday and recreation purposes (32.9%), and with professional purposes (13.8%).