Trips of Bulgarian residents abroad and arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria - May 2026 - preliminary data

In May 2026, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 922.5 thousand (Annex, Table 1), or 5.5% more compared the registered in May 2025 (Figure 1). An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered.

Most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to: Türkiye - 247.1 thousand, Greece - 202.4 thousand, Romania - 83.1 thousand, Serbia - 59.3 thousand, Germany - 50.3 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 37.1 thousand, Italy - 35.5 thousand, Austria - 30.7 thousand, Spain - 24.6 thousand, France - 24.1 thousand (Figure 2).

The trips with holiday and recreation purposes formed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 42.5%, followed by those with other purposes - 39.7%, and with professional purposes - 17.8% (Figure 3).

In May 2026, the number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was 1 021.8 thousand (Annex, Table 2), or 2.4% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year (Figure 4). An increase in the trips with all observed purposes was registered. The transit passes through the country were 30.1% (307.9 thousand) of all visits of non-residents to Bulgaria.

The share of visits of EU citizens was 60.5% of the total number of non-residents‘ visits to Bulgaria and reached 618.7 thousand, the largest being by visitors from Romania - 41.2%, and Greece - 23.7%.

The visits of non-residents in the group ‘Other European countries’^[1] were 342.1 thousand, or 33.5% of all visits to Bulgaria. The highest registered number of visits was from Türkiye - 190.9 thousand, or 55.8% in this group.

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

Most visits to Bulgaria were from: Romania - 254.7 thousand, Türkiye - 190.9 thousand, Greece - 146.7 thousand, Germany - 64.5 thousand, Serbia - 47.6 thousand, the United Kingdom - 36.8 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 32.1 thousand, Poland - 26.2 thousand, Ukraine - 25.7 thousand, Italy - 20.9 thousand (Figure 5).

The predominant share of the visits was with other purposes - 43.9%, followed by trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 41.9%, and with professional purposes - 14.2% (Figure 6).

Methodological notes

The definitions recommended by the World Tourist Organization and the Methodological manual for tourism by Eurostat are applied by the National Statistical Institute.

In accordance with these definitions, an international tourist is any person who travels to a country other than his/her permanent residence for less than a year and whose main purpose is not doing any activity for payment in the place visited.

The purposes of visiting a country are the following:

• Excursion and holiday;
• Professional purposes (business trips, participation in conferences, congresses, concluding deals, etc.);
• Other (as a guest, education and visiting cultural and sports events, etc.) purposes.

Statistical data on the trips of Bulgarian residents travelling abroad and visits by non-residents to Bulgaria are obtained on the basis of monthly information received from the Ministry of Interior, the airport authorities and a sample survey of the National Statistical Institute among residents and non-residents passing through border checkpoints.

Annex

Table 1

Table 2