Bulgarians made 250,900 trips abroad in November 2010, down 15.2 per cent on a year earlier, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said Monday.

Compared with November 2009, an increase was registered in the total number of trips to Ireland by 290.9 per cent, to Israel by 95.7 per cent, to Denmark by 46.0 per cent, to Canada by 31.8 per cent, to Belgium by 14.1 per cent, to Switzerland by 11.7 per cent, to Poland by 11.4 per cent and to the US by 10.9 per cent.

At the same time, the number of trips to Finland dropped by 38.9 per cent, to Slovakia by 31.7 per cent, to Slovenia by 27.8 per cent, to Turkey by 23.0 per cent, to Japan and Serbia by 22.2 per cent each, to Greece by 19.4 per cent, to Malta by 17.6 per cent, to the Netherlands by 16.8 per cent, to Austria by 15.0 per cent and to Norway by 14.6 per cent.

By purpose, 46.7 per cent of trips abroad were on business, followed by holiday and recreation trips, which accounted for 25.4 per cent of the total, visits as guests 23.7 per cent, and other purposes 4.2 per cent.

In November 2010, foreigners made 375,100 visits to Bulgaria, up 10.7 per cent on a year earlier. An increase was registered in the number of visits for all types of purposes. The largest increase, 16.0 per cent, was posted for transits, followed by holiday and recreation 12.5 per cent, and visits as guests and on business, respectively 12.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent.

Source: BTA