In January, the number of foreign visitors to Bulgaria saw a slight decline, while Bulgarians continued to show a growing interest in traveling abroad, according to data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

A total of 600,000 Bulgarians traveled outside the country in the first month of the year, marking an 11.7% increase compared to January 2024. Travel increased across all monitored categories, with neighboring countries remaining the most popular destinations. The highest number of trips were to Turkey (140,000) and Greece (139,000), followed by Romania (56,000), Serbia (49,000), Germany (30,000), North Macedonia (23,000), Austria (22,000), and Spain (17,000).

In terms of travel purpose, 48.4% of Bulgarians' trips were classified as "other," followed by leisure and excursions (27.3%) and business trips (24.3%).

Meanwhile, foreign visits to Bulgaria totaled 739,000 in January, reflecting a 0.3% decrease compared to the same period last year. A drop of 5.9% was observed in visits classified under "other purposes," while leisure-related travel and business visits increased by 6.5% and 2.9%, respectively.

Transit travel accounted for 28.4% (210,000) of all foreign visits to Bulgaria. Among those coming from the European Union, which represented 55% of the total foreign arrivals (413,000), the largest number of visitors came from Romania (37.5%) and Greece (32.2%).

Visitors from European countries outside the EU numbered 269,000, or 36.5% of all international arrivals. The largest share came from Turkey, with 130,000 visits, representing 48.2% of this category.

Overall, the highest number of foreign visits to Bulgaria in January came from Romania (154,000), Greece (133,000), Turkey (130,000), North Macedonia (49,000), Serbia (49,000), Germany (28,000), the United Kingdom (19,000), and Ukraine (17,000).