The number of trips made by Bulgarians abroad has been reduced by 25% in the course of one year.

The data was released by the National Statistics Institute.

The number of trips abroad in February 2009 is one fourth less than those in February of 2008 with a reduction for all countries for which data is collected.

The most significant decrease is registered for Israel - 62% down, followed by Slovenia (60%), Denmark (59%), Norway (58%), Finland (56%), Sweden (54%) and others.

Only trips to Turkey register an increase of 10%.

The number of trips abroad is steadily declining for the fourth consecutive month and from November 2008 to February 2009, there is a reduction of 66,000 trips.

Half of the Bulgarian trips abroad are business ones.

In comparison, most of the foreigners' trips to Bulgaria are for vacation purposes (37%). In February there is a decrease of foreign trips to Bulgaria for all countries for which data is collected, compared with February of last year.

The most significant reduction is for trips of Hungarians (36%), followed by the Swedish and the Slovenians (34%) among others.

From European countries, non-members of the European Union, the Serbs register the biggest reduction of trips to Bulgaria (31%), followed by the Norwegians and the Russians (19%).

The only increase is Canada - 6% more trips compared to February 2008.

In 2008, Bulgarians have made a total of 5,7 M trips abroad, which is nearly 30% more then in 2007.