2024-09-30 14:24:30
The number of foreigners who visited Bulgaria in August still cannot reach the levels of the record year for tourism in 2019. Then 200 thousand more foreigners came to Bulgaria than in August 2024.
Nearly 1 million were the Bulgarians who traveled abroad during the most vacation month of the year – August, according to the NSI data published on Friday. Their number is 903 thousand, but if we exclude those who traveled for official and personal reasons, there were 473 thousand on vacation and excursion abroad. They are split almost equally between neighboring Turkey and Greece, the data show.
The annual growth of Bulgarians who vacationed abroad in August was 19.3%, but the overall growth of those who traveled abroad was much more modest – 8.3%. And those who went only to attend sports or cultural events even decreased by 3.6% compared to last August.
The other highly visited countries in August were Romania, Serbia, Germany, Italy, Austria, France and the United Kingdom. Although August is the most suitable month for long-distance excursions, there are only about 600 Bulgarians who have visited the USA and Canada.
The number of foreigners who came to Bulgaria last month was 2.135 million, but 818 thousand of them passed only in transit. The actual number of foreign tourists is only 1.1 million
the Romanians, who are the most numerous group, are 304 thousand
Immediately after them are the Ukrainians – 131 thousand, and the Poles – 88 thousand.
Visits of foreign citizens to our country in August increased by 2.8% compared to August last year, but the number of those who came here on vacation increased by 6.2%.
The number of foreigners who visited Bulgaria in August, in practice, still cannot reach the levels of the record year for tourism in 2019. At that time, 2.3 million foreigners visited Bulgaria, i.e. about 200 thousand more than now. The pandemic has greatly reduced this number, but recovery has not yet taken place.