Bulgarians' Trips Abroad Up by 3.8% Y/Y in August 2012

Bulgarians made 412 000 trips abroad in August 2012, up by 2.1% month on month and by 3.8% year on year, according to the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The most significant increases were registered in the number of trips to Italy (145.2%), Austria (131.4%), Spain (72.3%), Great Britain (58.6%) and Germany (45.6%).

Meanwhile, Bulgarians' interest in neighboring countries flagged, with a 32.5% decrease in trips to Greece, an 8% decrease in trips to Serbia and a 7.6% decrease in trips to Turkey.

43.6% of all trips abroad were other purpose trips (visiting people, educational purposes, attending cultural and sports events), followed by vacation and leisure trips with 38.8% and business trips with 17.6%.

Compared to data for August 2011, the segments of vacation and leisure trips and other purpose trips registered increases in August 2012, up by 48.4% and 30.2%, respectively.

Business trips fell by as much as 52.1% year on year.

In August 2012, 67.6% of Bulgarians' trips to Serbia, 50.4% of the trips to Germany and 44.8% of the trips to Greece were other purpose trips.

The majority of trips to Turkey and France were vacation and leisure trips, at 49.7% and 49.4%, respectively, while trips to Belgium and Russia were mostly business trips, at 47.4% and 41%, respectively.

In August 2012, visits of foreign nationals to Bulgaria were 1 637.8 thousand, down by 2.7% month on month and up by 3.3% year on year.

All types of visits increased, the biggest growth observed in business visits, up by 22%, followed by other purpose visits with 3.4%, and vacation and leisure visits with 2%.

EU citizens made the biggest group of visitors to Bulgaria, at 64.3%, followed by visitors from third countries with 28.3%.

Compared to August 2011, visits of EU citizens fell by 3.8% in August 2012, with visits of Spanish nationals decreasing by 17.1%, Danish nationals by 14.7%, German nationals by 12.5%, Italy by 5.4%, and Great Britain by 5%.

Meanwhile, visits of Greek nationals increased by 2.8%, Belgium nationals by 1.7%, Romanian nationals by 1.1%, and Austrian nationals by 1%.

Visits by citizens of "other EU countries" increased by 23.3%, the biggest increase being in visits by Turkish, Ukrainian and Russian nationals, up by 47.2%, 40.5%, 34.1%, respectively

In August 2012, the major share of visits were vacation/ leisure visits, at 62.8%, followed by other purpose visits (including visits as guests and transit travel) with 32.2%, and business visits with 5%.

Vacation/leisure visits accounted for 87.2% of the visits of Russian citizens, 83.3% of the visits of UK citizens, 81.5% of the visits of citizens of the Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, and 80.8% of the visits of Ukrainian citizens.

Business visits accounted for14.9% of all visits of Italians, while 85.7% of the visits of Turkish nationals and 43.7% of the visits of Austrian nationals were other purpose visits.