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

In March 2026, the number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad was 707.2 thousand (Annex, Table 1), or 4.4% less compared to the registered in March 2025 (Figure 1). A decrease of 9.5% was registered in the trips with other purposes and of 0.1% in those with holiday and recreation purposes, while those with professional purposes increased by 2.3%.

Most trips of Bulgarian residents were made to: Türkiye - 199.4 thousand, Greece - 133.4 thousand, Romania - 80.4 thousand, Serbia - 48.5 thousand, Germany - 35.5 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 29.9 thousand, Austria - 26.6 thousand, Italy - 22.6 thousand, France - 17.6 thousand, Spain - 17.1 thousand (Figure 2).

The trips with other purposes formed the greatest share of the total number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad - 47.2%, followed by those with holiday and recreation purposes - 34.0%, and with professional purposes - 18.8% (Figure 3).

In March 2026, the number of visits of non-residents to Bulgaria was 771.2 thousand (Annex, Table 2), or 0.5% more in comparison with the same month of the previous year (Figure 4). An increase of 5.5% was registered in the trips with professional purposes and of 1.1% in those with holiday and recreation purposes, while those with other purposes decreased by 1.3%. The transit passes through the country were 31.8% (245.0 thousand) of all visits of non-residents to Bulgaria.

The share of visits of EU citizens was 56.7% of the total number of non-residents‘ visits to Bulgaria and reached 437.5 thousand, the largest being by visitors from Romania - 36.9%, and Greece - 31.0%.

The visits of non-residents in the group ‘Other European countries’^[1] were 295.6 thousand, or 38.3% of all visits to Bulgaria. The highest registered number of visits was from Türkiye - 174.7 thousand, or 59.1% in this group.

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

Most visits to Bulgaria were from: Türkiye - 174.7 thousand, Romania - 161.6 thousand, Greece - 135.7 thousand, Serbia - 48.6 thousand, Germany - 33.3 thousand, Republic of North Macedonia - 29.4 thousand, Ukraine - 22.6 thousand, Italy - 18.6 thousand, Poland - 15.4 thousand, the United Kingdom - 15.0 thousand (Figure 5).

The predominant share of the visits was with other purposes - 49.4%, followed by trips with holiday and recreation purposes - 36.7%, and with professional purposes - 13.9% (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