Number of Foreign Tourists in Bulgaria Soared in 2005

The number of foreign tourists that visited Bulgaria in 2005 went up by 5,09 percent. The share of the European Union (EU) in Bulgaria´s international tourism is 54,85 percent for the eleven months of 2005, data from the Culture Ministry revealed.

A total of 4,585,875 foreign citizens visited Bulgaria from January to November 2005. They fit in the “tourist” definition of the World Tourism Organization and the European Commission for Tourism with the EU. The number of the tourists has gone up by 5,09 percent as compared to the same period in 2004.

The number of tourists coming from the EU is rapidly going up as compared to the tourists from the other countries. With the 5,09 percent increase of the foreign tourists coming to Bulgaria for the period of January to November 2005, the tourists from the EU countries marks a boom of 6,15 percent.

Some 5,94 percent is the increase in the number of tourists coming from the old EU members and 7,23 percent from the new EU members.