The foreign tourist arrivals increased by 4.2% YoY in January 2016

The foreign tourists’ visits in Bulgaria increased with 4.2% YoY in January’16 to 410.1k. The holiday visits and the other purpose visits increased by 18.3% and 4.1% YoY to 191.5k and 157.8k, respectively, while the business trips declined by 24.0% YoY to 60.8k. The visits from EU-member states increased by 1.4% YoY and accounted for 42.3% of the total foreign tourist arrivals during the month. The most significant increase among the visits from EU-member countries was registered in the visits from Italy (+12.0% YoY), Greece (+6.0% YoY), and Austria (+0.9% YoY), whereas the most significant decrease was accounted in the visits from the UK (-10.1% YoY), Germany (-7.4% YoY), and France (-6.5% YoY). The visits from European non-EU member states increased by 6.3% YoY, where the highest increase was registered in the number of visits from Macedonia (+17.9% YoY).