Foreign tourists are fewer, but pay much more for holidays in Bulgaria

The number of foreign tourists in Bulgaria has not yet reached the pre-pandemic levels, but they are paying almost 50% more for holidays in Bulgaria. This is clear from the data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on the activity of accommodation in March 2024.

34.6 million leva are the revenues of hoteliers in Bulgaria for March 2024 from foreign tourists. In comparison, in the same month of the record year for Bulgarian tourism in 2019, revenues from overnight stays by foreign citizens were 23.5 million leva.

At the same time, however, the number of foreign tourists is still below the level of March 2019. In the third month of this year, foreign tourists staying overnight in our country were 131,118. While in March 2019, they were 137,895.

What else do the statistics show?

Looking at the total revenue from overnight stays in Bulgaria, we can see that it has increased by 17.4% compared to the same month of the previous year and reached BGN 93.5 million, with BGN 58.8 million coming from Bulgarian citizens and BGN 34.7 million from foreigners. BGN 34.6 million were from foreign citizens.

When compared to 2019, a 92% increase in revenue from overnight stays is visible.

The total number of overnight stays in March was 1,074.8 thousand, or 4.6 percent more than a year earlier. Bulgarian citizens made 733 thousand overnight stays and foreigners - 341.8 thousand.

Total bed occupancy in March was 27.1 percent, up 0.1 percentage points compared to a year earlier. The highest occupancy rate was in 4- and 5-star accommodation - 37.3 per cent, followed by 3-star - 25.4 per cent, and 1- and 2-star - 16.4 per cent.

This article was translated with the support of DeepL.