Bulgarians' Trips Abroad Rise By Almost 10% In September

Bulgarians' trips abroad increased by 9.7% in September, year-on-year, shows data of the National Statistics Institute (NSI).

The total number of foreign trips was 407 000.

Most significant rise was posted by trips to Greece - 19.6%, Turkey - 17.7%, Italy - 17.1%, Germany - 13.6%, Spain - 13.2%, the UK - 12.1%, Serbia - 7.8% and Macedonia - 7.7%.

The number of trips to the Czech Republic, Romania and Russia decreased by 16.8%, 11.5% and 5.6%, respectively.

The largest relative share of trips remain those for visiting friends and relatives, education, cultural and sports events - 41.6%, followed by vacations - 33.7% and business trips - 24.7%.

Compared to September 2013, the business trips and the vacations post an increase by 41.5% and 30.2%, respectively.

In September the foreigners who visited Bulgaria were 1.108 M, or by 0.5% less than in September 2013.

The EU citizens constituted 64% of all foreign tourists.