| Резюме: |  10,000 Bulgarians traveled to Europe's most affected country by a coronavirus - Italy, last month. This is shown by the data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
Even more so are the Bulgarians who traveled to Spain in February - 12.9 thousand, where the situation with COVID-19 is also very serious, although things did not escalate last month. At the same time, however, the two European countries are by far not among the top destinations for Bulgarians in February. Most Bulgarians have traveled to our neighboring countries.
In February 2020, the number of the trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 400.6 thousand or by 1.0% above the registered in February 2019. In comparison with the same month of the previous year, an increase was observed in the total number of the trips of Bulgarians to: Austria - by 6.2%, Spain - by 4.6%, Turkey - by 3.9%, Republic of North Macedonia - by 3.7%, Germany - by 1.7%, the United Kingdom - by 1.4%, France - by 1.0%, Serbia - by 0.3%, and etc. At the same time decreased the trips to: Italy - by 16.1%, Czech Republic - by 4.2%, the Netherlands - by 3.4%, Greece - by 3.3%, Romania - by 0.5%, and etc.
In comparison with February 2019, an increase was registered in the trips with professional purpose - by 2.9% and with ‘holiday and recreation’ - by 1.5%, while those with purposes ‘others’ decreased by 0.2%. The trips with other purposes (as a guest, education and visit the cultural and sport events) in February 2020 composed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 49.2%, followed by those with professional purpose - 27.8%, and with holiday and recreation purposes - 23.0%
In February 2020 most trips of Bulgarian citizens were made to: Turkey - 86.1 thousand, Greece - 62.8 thousand, Romania - 45.0 thousand, Serbia - 38.2 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 30.4 thousand, Germany - 22.7 thousand, Austria - 16.2 thousand, France - 13.4 thousand, Spain - 12.9 thousand, Italy - 10.0 thousand.
In February 2020, the number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria was 508.0 thousand or by 5.2% more in comparison with February 2019. An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered: ‘holiday and recreation’ - by 6.6%, ‘others’ (including as guest and passing transit) - by 6.0% and ‘professional’ - by 0.6%. Transit passes through the country were 25.1% (127.7 thousand) of all visits of foreigners to Bulgaria.
The share of visits of ЕU citizens was 44.2% of the total number of foreigners’ visits to Bulgaria in February 2020 or by 1.0% less in comparison with the same month of the previous year. A decrease was registered in the visits of citizens from Belgium - by 25.6%, Austria - by 23.2%, Germany - by 7.1%, Greece - by 4.5%, Romania - by 2.7%, and etc. At the same time increased the visits from Poland - by 17.4%, France - by 7.8%, Italy - by 6.4%, and etc. The visits of foreigners in the group ‘Other European countries’1 increased by 11.0%, as the highest increase was observed in the visits of citizens of Ukraine - by 19.3%. In February 2020, the predominant share of the visits with holiday and recreation purpose was 42.4%, followed by trips with other purposes - 38.8%, and with professional purpose - 18.8%.
In February 2020 the most visits to Bulgaria were from: Turkey - 95.8 thousand, Romania - 63.0 thousand, Serbia - 57.0 thousand, Greece - 53.8 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 43.2 thousand, the United Kingdom - 32.7 thousand, Ukraine - 16.9 thousand, Israel - 16.3 thousand, Germany - 14.0 thousand, Russian federation - 10.9 thousand.
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