site.btaBulgarians Make More Tourism Trips in Q1 of 2024, Y/Y

In the first quarter of 2024, some 1.07 million Bulgarian residents aged 15 and over made tourist trips, show data published by the National Statistical Institute on Monday. The majority of them - 74.9% travelled only in the country, 19.5% - only abroad, and 5.6% - both in the country and abroad. Compared to the same quarter of 2023, the total number increased by 5.7%.

Most Bulgarian citizens who travelled were aged 25-44 years - some 409,000 or 38.3% of all travellers. The share of trips in the country dominated in all age groups, the highest (83.8%) being the share among persons aged 65 and over. Of the Bulgarian residents travelling abroad, the highest share was of people aged 45-64 - 22.5%.

Registered as independent were some 1.4 million, or 88.2% of the total number of private tourist trips. The relative share of independent trips without booking was 94.8% in the country and 58.2% abroad. 

The majority of tourist trips in the country (54.0%) and abroad (67.3%) were with ‘holiday and recreation’ purpose.

Among the tourism-related expenditure, the highest relative share on domestic and outbound trips was the expenditure on food - 36.9% and 32.2%. The average expenditure on private trips per person was BGN 272.82 in the country and BGN 717.48 abroad. At the same time, the average expenditure per person on a professional trip was BGN 250.63 in the country and BGN 1,208.86 abroad.