September 24 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's revenues from foreign tourists in the January-July period stood at 3 billion levs ($1.72 billion/1.53 billion euro), the country's tourism minister said on Thursday, quoting central bank data.
"Unfortunately, tourism is among the sectors with the largest share of gray economy, which according to some analyses reaches 50%," Nikolina Angelkova said, as quoted in a press release of the tourism ministry.
Foreign arrivals in Bulgaria fell by 9.0% over the year in July to 1.63 million, according to latest available official statistics. A total of foreigners visited Bulgaria in July, the National Statistics Office has said.
According to the World Travel&Tourism Council (WTTC) Bulgaria's tourism and travel industry contributed 3.1 billion levs directly to the country's economy in 2014, equivalent to 3.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Bulgaria's travel and tourism sector generated 103,000 jobs directly in 2014 and this is forecast to rise by 0.9% in 2015, WTTC said in a report published earlier this year.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)