April 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's tourism and travel industry contributed 3.1 billion levs ($1.7 billion/1.6 billion euro) directly to the country's economy in 2014, equivalent to 3.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), the World Travel&Tourism Council (WTTC) said.
The direct GDP contribution of the country's tourism and travel industry is forecast to rise by 2.0% in 2015, the WTTC said last week in its Travel&Tourism Economic Impact 2015 report on Bulgaria.
Travel and tourism investment in Bulgaria in 2014 was 1.1 billion levs and the WTTC expects it will rise by 9.6% in 2015.
Leisure travel spending - inbound and domestic - in Bulgaria generated 73.8% of direct travel and tourism GDP last year and is expected to grow by 4.0% in 2015. Business travel is seen down by 0.5% in 2015.
Bulgaria's travel and tourism sector generated 103,000 jobs directly in 2014 and this is forecast to rise by 0.9% in 2015.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)