SOFIA (Bulgaria), January 27 (SeeNews) – Foreign arrivals in Bulgaria rose by 6.0% over the year in December, official statistics showed on Tuesday.
A total of 430,100 foreigners visited Bulgaria in December, the National Statistics Office said in a press release.
As many as 55.7% of all foreigners who visited Bulgaria in December were visiting friends or relatives, or just transiting the country, 28.7% were tourists and 15.6% came on business. The number of people who visited the country on business trips in December was 35.1% higher than the previous year.
Citizens of EU member states accounted for 53.8% of all foreign arrivals last month, with arrivals from Spain and Italy rising by an annual 31.9% and 26.4%, respectively.
Arrivals from European non-EU member states last month increased by 1.0% compared to December 2013, largely due to a 7.0% increase in the number of visitors from Turkey.