Foreign tourist arrivals to Bulgaria up 1.1% y/y in April

Nationals from fellow EU member states accounted for 48.7% of all visits by foreign visitors in the review month, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a regular report. Romania was Bulgaria's biggest EU feeder market, from where 44.1% of EU visitors originated, followed by Greece with 29.5%.

Visits to Bulgaria from other European countries totalled 329,600 last month, of which Turkey accounted for 51.1%.

Romanian nationals represented the largest group of foreign visitors to Bulgaria overall in April, or 170,400, followed by visitors from Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Serbia and Germany.

In April, holiday trips and business visits made up 34% and 14.2% of all international visitors' arrivals, respectively. Trips with holiday and recreation purposes grew by an annual 2.3%, while business visits rose by 4.4%, the NSI said.