Bulgarians made 779,500 trips abroad in July 2019,

Bulgarians made 779,500 trips abroad in July 2019, or 7.2% more than in July 2018, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a press release. 

The increase was registered in the trips to the United Kingdom – by 11.4%, Romania – by 11.2%, Turkey – by 8.4%, Germany – by 8.1%, Greece – by 6.9%, Republic Northern Macedonia – by 4.8%, Spain – by 4.5%, Austria – by 3.8%.
At the same time, the trips of Bulgarians to Italy decreased by 3.8%, to Serbia – by 2.3%, to the Netherlands – by 2.3%.
The trips with other purposes (as a guest, education or visiting cultural and sports events) in July 2019 composed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad – 40.7%, followed by holiday trips – 39.7%, and business trips – 19.6%.

In July 2019, most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to Turkey – 181,300, Greece – 160,700, Germany – 71,500, Romania – 69,800, Serbia – 37,300, Republic of Northern Macedonia – 34,900, Italy – 27,700, Austria – 23,500, United Kingdom – 21,900, Spain – 19,300.

In July 2019, the number of arrivals of foreign visitors to Bulgaria was 2,083,100, or 3.2% less than in July 2018. The share of EU citizens was 60.1%, or 5.2% less than in the same month of the previous year. An increase was registered in the visits of citizens from the UK – by 21.0%, Ireland – by 19.1%, Hungary – by 6.5%, Romania – by 6.1%, Spain – by 3.5%, France – by 1.6%. At the same time, the number of visits by citizens from the Czech Republic decreased by 13.9%, Germany – by 12.9%, Poland – by 11.6%, Greece – by 7.6%.

Visits from the Other European Countries group decreased by 0.2%, with the largest decrease in visits from the Russian Federation by 15.7%.

Most visitors to Bulgaria in July 2019 were from Romania: 314,300, Turkey – 212,300, Germany – 204,100, Greece – 128,500, Ukraine – 127,500, Russian Federation – 115,500, Poland – 106,100, United Kingdom – 87,700, Serbia – 72,400, Czech Republic – 60,500.