August 28 (SeeNews) - The number of foreign visitors to Bulgaria went up by an annual 19.7% in July, reaching 1.84 million, of which 35.9% were transit trips, the statistical office said on Monday.
Visitors from fellow EU member states made up 49.8% of all visits by foreign nationals in July, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a monthly report. Romania was Bulgaria's biggest EU feeder market, accounting for 24.6% of all foreign visitors, followed by Germany with 19.7%.
Visits to Bulgaria from other European countries totalled 709,904 last month, of which Turkey accounted for 37.5%.
Overall, Turkey was the source of the largest number of visitors in the review month, or 266,427, followed by Romania, Ukraine, Germany, Poland and Serbia.
In July, holiday trips and business visits accounted for 50.3% and 5.8% of all international visitors' arrivals, respectively, with increases recorded in all categories of visits monitored.