The number of trips made by residents of Bulgaria abroad in November reached 638,000, up 11.3% compared with November 2023, the National Institute of Statistics said on Friday.

The most trips by Bulgarian residents were made to Turkey (193,200), Greece (109,300), Serbia (68,500), Romania (64.300), Germany (32,700), Italy (21,800), Austria (20,600), North Macedonia (19,300), Britain (18,600), and Spain (13,800).

28.5% of these trips were for vacation and leisure, 23.2% for business, but most, 48.3%, were for “other reasons.”

In November, the number of foreign visitors to Bulgaria amounted to 711,900, an increase of 2.5% compared to the same month last year. There was an increase in business trips by 9.3% and leisure trips by 7.7%, while trips for other reasons decreased by 2.7%.

47.2% of visitors (a total of 336,000) came from EU countries, with most of them coming from Romania (42.7%) and Greece (25%). Visits to Bulgaria by residents of other European countries amounted to 311,600 (43.8% of the total) with most of them coming from Turkey (157,400).

Of the total number of visitors, 31.1% said they were travelling for holidays and leisure and 18.8% for business purposes, while 49.7%, the largest proportion, were travelling for “other reasons”.