Foreign tourist arrivals to Bulgaria up 16% y/y in Feb

Nationals from fellow EU member states accounted for 46.2% of all visits by foreign nationals in the review month, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a regular report. Romania was Bulgaria's biggest EU feeder market, from where 43.3% of EU visitors originated, followed by Greece with 26%.

Visits to Bulgaria from other European countries totalled 312,500 last month, of which Turkey accounted for 46.4%.

Turkish nationals represented the largest group of foreign visitors to Bulgaria overall in February, or 145,000, followed by visitors from Romania, Greece, Serbia, Ukraine and the U.K.

In February, holiday trips and business visits made up 39.1% and 13.7% of all international visitors' arrivals, respectively, with increases recorded in all categories of visits monitored.