Bulgarians made 528 604 trips abroad in July, which represented an increase of 16.5 % compared to the same month in 2014.

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

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

At the same time, the number of visits to the Czech Republic, Portugal, Israel and Romania recorded a decrease.

Travel for other purposes (guest visits, education, attending cultural and sport events) constituted the greatest relative share of trips, followed by holiday travels and excursions and business trips.

There was an increase in the number of holiday travels and excursions as well as trips for other purposes, while business trips dropped.

The majority of trips to Belgium (68.7 %) and the UK (63.2 %) were made for other purposes, 45.9 % of visits to Romania were business trips, while nearly two thirds of trips to Italy and Greece were holiday travels and excursions.

In July, foreign visits to Bulgaria amounted to 1 631 920, which represented a decrease of 9 % compared to the same month in July.

There was a decrease in all three kinds of visits - business trips, trips for other purposes and holiday travels and excursions.

The share of EU citizens was 58.5 %, which represented a decrease of 13.6 % compared to July last year.

The number of visitors from Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Greece and the UK all dropped.

At the same time, there was an increase in the number of people from France, Slovakia, Italy and Denmark.

There was also a decrease in the number of visitors from other European countries, the greatest drop coming from Russia.

Holiday travels and excursions constituted the greatest share of visits to Bulgaria, followed by travel for other purposes and business trips.

Holiday travels and excursions constituted almost all visits made by citizens of Israel and Russia, while the majority of trips made by Greeks and Turks were for other purposes.

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