January 28 (SeeNews) - The number of foreign tourists who visited Bulgaria edged up 0.4% year-on-year to some 9.3 million in 2019, the tourism ministry said on Tuesday.
Romania remained the leading market for Bulgaria's inbound tourism last year, contributing some 1.3 million tourist visits, the ministry said in a statement, citing aggregated full-year data following the release of tourist numbers in December by the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
Greece followed with 1.2 million tourist arrivals to Bulgaria (up 4.7%), while visits by German tourists amounted to some 761,000, the ministry said.
The number of foreign tourists who visited Bulgaria in December increased by 8.6% year-on-year to 673,000, the NSI said earlier on Tuesday.
Citizens of EU member states made up 55.4% of all arrivals of international visitors in December. Vacation trips made up 34.9% of all foreign tourist visits during the month, while business trips accounted for 18.2%. The number of people who visited friends or relatives in Bulgaria or just transited the country represented 46.9% of all arrivals of foreign nationals in December.
Most foreign visitors to Bulgaria came from Romania, Turkey and Greece in December.