Trips of Bulgarians Abroad Down 18% in Oct 2012 M/M
2012-11-27 13:08:12

In October 2012, the number of the trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 281.5 thousand or by 15.7% less than in September 2012 and by 4.9% under the registered in October 2011.

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

In comparison with the same month of the previous year, a decrease in the total number of the trips of Bulgarian residents was reported to: Serbia - by 29.3%, Turkey - by 28.0%, FYROM - 26.4% and Romania - by 19.3%. At the same time, an increase was observed in trips to: Austria - by 108.6%, the United Kingdom - by 103.9%, Italy - by 97.3%, and Spain - by 56.9%.

Trips with other purposes (as guest, education and visits of cultural and sport events) composed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 47.2%, followed by the trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 29.3% and with professional purpose - 23.5%. In comparison with October 2011, an increase was observed in the trips with holiday and recreation purpose, as well as these with other purposes, trips with professional purposes registered a decrease.

In October 2012, trips with other purposes formed 63.9% from all trips to the United Kingdom, 58.3% - to Germany, 53.7% - to Greece. Trips to Spain and Turkey were predominantly with holiday and recreation purpose - 52.6 and 42.1% respectively, while to Belgium and France they had professional purpose - 66.7 and 50.0% respectively of all trips of Bulgarian residents to these countries.

In October 2012, the number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria was 524.0 thousand which was by 51.6% less compared to September 2012 and by 3.0% above the level from October 2011. An increase in visits with holiday and recreation purpose - by 7.3% and with professional purpose - by 3.8% was registered, while visits with other purposes decreased by 1.0%.

The visits of the citizens of European Union composed the greatest relative share of the total number of foreigners who visited Bulgaria - 56.5%, followed by these from the other European countries - 34.7%.

In comparison with the same month of the previous year, arrivals of visitors from EU Member States increased by 0.4%. A significant increase was observed in the visits of the citizens from France - by 9.0%, Greece - by 8.1%, Austria - by 6.4% and the United Kingdom - by 6.0%. However, visits from Romania - by 5.9% and Italy - by 3.3% registered a drop.

The visits of foreigners in the group "Other European Countries" increased by 8.5% as the highest growth was observed in visits of citizens of the Russian Federation and Turkey - by 41.8% and 19.5% respectively.

In October 2012, visits to Bulgaria with other purposes (including as guest and passing transit) had the largest share - 42.4%, followed by arrivals with holiday and recreation purposes - 39.3% and with professional purpose - 18.3%.

The visits with holiday and recreation purposes formed 80.0% of the arrivals from FYROM, 70.4% - from United Kingdom, 60.4% - from Serbia and 53.0% - from Russia. The visits with professional purpose were 64.0% of all arrivals from Spain and 59.8% - from Austria, while 76.0% of the arrivals from Turkey, 64.6% - from Ukraine and 49.5% - from Greece were with other purpose.