Foreign tourist arrivals to Bulgaria fall 68% y/y in August

Citizens of EU member states accounted for 63.1% of all international arrivals to Bulgaria in the month under review, or 67.4% less than a year earlier, NSI said in a monthly report.

Travellers who visited friends or relatives or just transited the country represented 58.4% of all foreign nationals who entered Bulgaria in the month under review. Vacation trips and business trips accounted for 32.5% and 9.1%, respectively. 

At the end of August, the tourism ministry said that the European Commission has approved the government's plans to subsidise charter flights to Bulgaria in a bid to support the tourism sector. Bulgaria will provide subsidies of 35 euro ($40.9) per seat for flights with a capacity of at least 100 seats by the end of the year.

($ = 0.855321 euro)