Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mainly in summer (June-September), while dur-
ing the winter season (January-April) it reached
only
€
263m
.
Within the EU market, Bulgaria is viewed as
a typical package tourism destination, while visi-
tors from neighbouring countries arrive almost
exclusively on individually arranged trips.
In 2004, arrivals of foreign tourists grew by
13.6% (see Table 19.1), and accommodation
capacity expanded by almost 30%. Such dynamic
tourism growth places Bulgaria among European
growth leaders together with Turkey and Croatia.
Foreign visitors registered nearly 10m overnight
stays, while Bulgarians contributed 5m, making
a total of 15m overnight stays in commercial
accommodation. The leading source country
continues to be Germany, followed by rapid
growth from the UK and Greece. Smaller source
markets that are also growing quickly are the
Scandinavian countries, The Netherlands, the
USA, Israel, Austria, Switzerland and new
EU members: the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia, as well as neigh-
bouring Romania and Turkey (see Table 19.3).
Table 19.3.
Bulgaria: international arrivals in Bulgaria for leisure and recreation, 2004.
No. of leisure and
recreation visits
Top 30 countries
2004/2003 % change
Greece
707,453
+
29.17
FYR Macedonia
a
655,974
−
2.44
Serbia and Montenegro
a
576,965
−
2.50
Germany
565,337
5.75
+
United Kingdom
259,092
+62.60
Russian Federation
120,523
−
0.67
Czech Republic
102,045
+
30.17
Poland
99,684
+
61.25
Sweden
96,131
+
36.43
Romania
a
91,539
+
19.43
Israel
79,172
+
14.65
Slovakia
75,253
+
17.74
Finland
58,463
+
19.72
Denmark
52,594
+
23.15
France
48,634
+
35.98
USA
39,276
+
26.18
Turkey
37,600
+
13.92
Hungary
33,028
+
51.17
Austria
32,219
+
38.79
Belgium
30,022
−
6.69
Ukraine
29,793
-29.71
Italy
28,337
+
15.28
The Netherlands
25,874
19.09
+
Norway
21,403
+
37.15
Switzerland
20,085
+
39.43
Cyprus
13,400
+
52.93
Belarus
12,037
−
1.38
Slovenia
11,824
+
73.40
Rep. of Ireland
11,460
+
83.39
Spain
9,638
+
40.27
Total
4,010,326
+
13.56
a
Including cross-border petty traders.
Source:
NSI, 2005.
