Trips of Bulgarian residents abroad and arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria - January 2026 - final data

In January 2026, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 649.3 thousand (Annex, Table 1), or 8.1% above the registered in January 2025. An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered.

Most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to: Greece - 150.6 thousand, Türkiye - 149.2 thousand, Romania - 69.5 thousand, Serbia - 51.7 thousand, Germany - 34.1 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 24.7 thousand, Austria - 23.7 thousand, Italy - 21.0 thousand, the United Kingdom - 18.3 thousand, Spain - 17.7 thousand.

The trips with other purposes formed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 45.9%, followed by those with holiday and recreation purposes - 28.5%, and with professional purposes - 25.6%.

In January 2026, the number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was 812.8 thousand (Annex, Table 2), or 10.0% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year. An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered.

Transit passes through the country were 27.9% (226.4 thousand) of all visits of non-residents to Bulgaria.

The share of visits of ЕU citizens was 54.5% of the total number of non-residents‘ visits to Bulgaria and reached 442.9 thousand, the largest being by visitors from Romania - 38.1%, and Greece - 31.0%.

The visits of non-residents in the group ‘Other European countries’^[1] were 301.8 thousand, or 37.1% of all visits to Bulgaria. The highest registered number of visits was from Türkiye - 151.9 thousand, or 50.3% in this group.

^[1] Group ‘Other European countries’ includes countries in Europe outside the EU.

Most visits to Bulgaria were from: Romania - 168.6 thousand, Türkiye - 151.9 thousand, Greece - 137.2 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 55.5 thousand, Serbia - 53.5 thousand, Germany - 29.8 thousand, Austria - 22.4 thousand, Israel - 19.3 thousand, the United Kingdom - 17.3 thousand, Ukraine - 16.6 thousand.

The predominant share of the visits was with other purposes - 47.3%, followed by trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 39.0%, and with professional purposes - 13.7%.

Annex

                       Table 1

Table 2