Informes Sectoriales OP - Icex

TOURISM AND RELATED SERVICES IN BULGARIA
year
Thousand people
Previous year=100 2000=100
Indexes
2000 2 354
2001 2 756 117.08 117.08
2002 2 993 108.60 127.15
2003 3 532 118.01 150.04
2004 4 010 113.53 170.35
Source: NSI
In 2004, as compared with 2003, the growth is also high – by 478 000 people or 14
per cent. Compared with 2000, the increase reached 1 656 000 people or 1.7 times.
Growth in the number of foreign tourist and holiday visits in Bulgaria (2001-
2004) – in thousand people
1 800
1 600
1 400
1 200
1 000
800
600
400
200
0
402
639
1 178
1 656
2001 2002 2003 2004
Source: NSI
Duration of tourist and holiday visits
The average duration of tourist visits in hotels with bed capacity exceeding 30 beds
per visitor is relatively short. Although tourist and holiday visits from the neighbouring
countries such as Greece, FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro, and Romania are
generally developing with a trend of slower increase, in 2004 their share continued to
be quite large – 47 per cent. Visits by tourists from these countries are usually with
short duration.
Night stays by foreigners in hotels with bed capacity exceeding 30 beds (2000
– 2004)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Night stays – in thousands 5 101 6 118 6 985 8 987 10 303
Average per tourist/holiday taker
2.167
– number of people
2.220 2.334 2.544 2.569
Source: NSI
Gradual increase of the average number of night stays is observed. From 2 167 in
2000, they reached 2 569 in 2004, registering an increase of 19 per cent.
Tourists from Germany booked the biggest number of night stays in 2004 – about 41
per cent.
In 2003, visitors from the seven countries (Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Sweden,
Finland, Denmark, Belgium) accounted for about 77 per cent. In 2004, the share of
visitors from these countries shrank by about 3 points down to 74 per cent.
Spanish Economic and Commercial Office of the Spanish Embassy in Sofia 74