The number of trips of Bulgarian s abroad continued to go down in December while the number of foreign visitors to the country is up, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (NSI) released Thursday.

254 200 Bulgarians traveled abroad in December, which is over 15% down, compared to the same month of 2009.

Bulgarians traveled the most to neighboring Greece and Romania, followed by Germany.

Nearly half of all trips of Bulgarians abroad have been business trips, followed by vacation and visiting friends or relatives (about 25% each).

Meanwhile, 374 300 foreigners have visited Bulgaria in December. This is a nearly 5% increase year-on-year. The largest increase has been registered in the number of transit travelers – 10%, followed by vacationers – 7%.

Visits from EU Member States are down by 2% with Romanians registering an 18% decrease.

From non-EU countries, the number of Serbian visitors, compared to November 2009, is up over 50%.

One third of all foreigners, who visited Bulgaria in December 2010, were transit travelers; 32% have been tourists and 16% came on business.

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