February 27 (SeeNews) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria rose by an annual 1.9% to 554,300 in January, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Wednesday.
Citizens of EU member states accounted for 48% of all arrivals of international visitors in January, the NSI said in a monthly report on tourist numbers.
Vacation trips made up 43.2% of all foreign tourist visits in January, while business trips accounted for 17.7%.
The number of people who visited friends or relatives in Bulgaria or just transited the country constituted 39.1% of all arrivals of foreign nationals in January.
The largest share of foreign tourists came from Greece, Turkey and North Macedonia.
In 2018, foreign tourist arrivals to Bulgaria increased by 4.4% to a record 9.3 million.