Bulgaria Sees Increase of Foreign Visitors July 2011 y/y

The number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria in July 2011 was 1 609 900, which indicates a 2.6% increase year on year, the country's National Statistical Institute says.

Tourism is the main reason for the increase, as the arrivals with holiday and recreation purpose increased by 4.7% compared to the corresponding month of 2010 and composed the greatest share of the total number of foreigners visited Bulgaria – 60.9%

A total of 25% of the visitors passed transit, while 6.7 visited the country on professional purposes – 6.7 %.

In July 2011, the arrivals of visitors from EU Member States rose by 3.0% in comparison with the same month of 2010. The highest growth in the number of visits was observed from Greece and Spain – by 28.3 and 21.6% respectively.

A decrease in the visits to Bulgaria was registered from Cyprus - by 10.8%, Ireland - by 9.6%, Estonia - by 9.1%, etc.

The visits of foreigners in the group "Other European countries" increased by 10.6%. The largest growth in the number of arrivals of citizens was observed from Ukraine - by 33.3%, Russian Federation - by 17.7% and Serbia - by 7.2%.

In the number of the trips of Bulgarian residents in abroad was 378.3 thousand, which was 6.3% more than the number of the trips in July 2010. An increase in the total number of the trips was registered namely to: Switzerland - by 19.5%, Netherlands - by 18.5%, Slovenia- by 17.4%, Israel - by 17.0%, Italy - by 14.7%, Sweden - by 13.0%, France - by 10.1%, Russian Federation - by 10.0%,