In September 2013, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 370 900 or by 11% above the registered in September 2012.

The data was released Monday by the National Statistics Institute (NSI).

In comparison with the same month of the previous year an increase was observed in the total number of the trips of Bulgarians to: the United Kingdom - by 66.1%, Turkey - by 41.3%, Serbia - by 14.9%, Macedonia - by 11.0%, and etc. At the same time, a decrease was observed in the total number of trips of Bulgarian to: Spain - by 33.2%, Czech Republic - by 32.9%, Italy - by 22.5%, Austria - by 13.7%, and etc.

Trips with other purposes (as guest, education and visit of cultural and sport events) composed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 52.4%, followed by the trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 28.4% and with professional purpose (business trips) - 19.2%.

In comparison with September 2012, an increase in the trips with the other purposes and with holiday and recreation purposes was observed - by 19.6 and 7.9% respectively, while a decrease was registered in professional trips - by 3.7%.

In September 2013, trips with other purposes formed 73.9% of all trips to Turkey; 72.7% - to Serbia, 62.5% - to the Russian Federation and 60.8% - to Romania. Trips with professional purpose had the share of those to Austria and Macedonia - 47.3 and 43.2% respectively. The share of trips with holiday and recreation purpose to Greece was 49.3% and to Spain - 46.7% of all trips of Bulgarian residents to these countries.

In September 2013, the number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria was 1 113.1 thousand which was by 2.8% above the level of September 2012. An increase was registered in visits with holiday and recreation purpose - by 4.2% and with other purposes - by 2.7%, while trips with professional purpose decreased by 2.0%,

The visits of the citizens of European Union had the greatest relative share in the total number of the foreigners who visited Bulgaria - 65.3%, as in comparison with the same month of the previous year they decreased by 0.3%.

A decrease was registered in visits of citizens of the Netherlands - by 8.7%, France - by 7.2%, Hungary - by 4.5%, the United Kingdom - by 4.3%, Czech Republic - by 3.6%, and etc. At the same time a growth in the visits of citizens of Austria - by 4.2%, Greece - by 2.8%, Romania - by 1.6%, and Germany - by 1.1%, was reported.

Visits of foreigners in the group “Other European Countries” increased by 9.6% as the highest growth was observed in the visits of citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine - by 26.8% and 21.0%, respectively.

In September 2013, visits with holiday and recreation purpose had the largest share - 50.9%, followed by these with other purposes (including as guest and passing transit) - 36.7%, and with professional purpose - 12.4%.

The visits with holiday and recreation purpose formed 85.0% of the arrivals from the Russian Federation, 78.6% - from Macedonia, 74.4% - from Poland, 70.8% - from Germany, and 70.6% - from the United Kingdom. The visits with professional purpose were 33.2% of all arrivals from Italy and 28.3% - from Austria, while 76.4% of the arrivals from Turkey and 57.2% from Romania were with other purpose.

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