In the month of June, Bulgarians completed 468 319 trips abroad, which represented an increase of 13.9 % compared to the same month last year.

This is shown by the latest figures of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), which were released on Monday.

There was an increase in the number of trips made by Bulgarians to Turkey, Greece, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Italy, France and Austria.

There was a decrease in the number of trips to Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Russia, Israel and Romania.

The trips for other purposes, such as visiting relatives and friends, education, attending cultural and sport events, constituted the greatest relative share of visits made by Bulgarians abroad, followed by holiday travels and excursions and business trips.

Both holiday travels and excursions and trips for other purposes registered an increase, while there was a decrease in the number of business trips.

Trips for other purposes constituted 72.6 % of all visits to Serbia and 56 % of those to Germany, while 46.2 % of all visits to Russia were for business trips.

The majority of trips to Spain and Italy, respectively 66.7 % and 46.4 %, were holiday travels and excursions.

In June, foreigners completed 1 133 517 trips to Bulgaria, which represented a decrease of 3.7 % compared to the same month in 2014.

There was a decrease in the number of holiday travels and excursions, while visits for other purposes and business trips increased.

The majority of foreigners coming to Bulgaria in June originated from the EU – 57.6 %, which represented a slight increase of 0.5 %.

There was an increase in the number of visitors from Greece, Romania, Germany, Hungary, while there was a drop in the number of visitors from France, Italy, Poland, the UK and the Czech Republic.

There was a 12.1 % drop in the number of visitors from other European countries, the greatest decrease being from Russian citizens.

Holiday travels and excursions accounted for nearly half of the trips completed by foreigners – 49.9 %, followed by visits for other purposes and business trips.

Almost all visits made by citizens of Israel and Russia were holiday travels and excursions, the respective figures being 97.3 % and 87.9 %.

Business trips accounted for 64.7 % of all visits made by Swiss citizens, while the majority of visits from Turkey and Romania were for other purposes, the respective figures being 63.1 % and 60.4 %.