–
–
At the height of the summer season, only 35% of holidaymakers in Bulgaria are foreigners and 65% – Bulgarians, while in previous years the ratio was the opposite. PHOTO: DIMCHO RAYKOV
–
Out of a total of 2.5 million tourists in our country this summer – from May 1 to August 8, 2021, 65% were Bulgarian citizens, according to data from hotels collected by the Ministry of Tourism through the unified information system ESTI.
A similar figure was published on Tuesday by the NSI – 67% of the guests of the hotels in Bulgaria who stayed only in June were Bulgarian citizens.
Usually the ratio between foreigners and Bulgarians in the active summer months is just the opposite – most holidaymakers are from abroad.
The total number of tourists this summer is about twice as large as last year, but about 3 times less than in the summer of 2019.
Approximately 750,000 are foreign tourists this summer, with the largest group being Romanians – 288,000 holidaymakers, making up about 8% of all. It is followed by Poland with 74.7 thousand guests and Ukraine with 58.3 thousand. German tourists, who in previous years were the largest group of foreigners vacationing in Bulgaria, this year are only 43,800 people. The Czechs are also much smaller than usual – 44 thousand people.
The Russians this summer are also unusually small – only 7,360 people. Even the French, vacationing in Bulgaria, are more than them – 9923 people.
In addition, the statistics show that Bulgarian citizens staying in hotels spent an average of 2 nights, while the few foreigners – 4, and most of them – over 72%, spent the night in hotels with 4 and 5 stars.
Hence the almost equal revenues from overnight stays – foreign nationals left in Bulgarian hotels in June, when the latest data are BGN 41 million, while Bulgarian – BGN 40 million. The total revenues of hotels from overnight stays this month were 82 , BGN 5 million. For comparison, in June 2020 they were only BGN 23.1 million.
This summer, for another year, many hotels did not open, because until the last moment it was not known what the conditions for travel would be, and there was a mass refusal of charter flights from abroad. In the hotels that opened, the average occupancy was 23.4%. It is slightly higher in hotels category 4 or 5 stars – 27.8%, but usually at this time of year reaches 40%. In the lowest category accommodation establishments, the average occupancy rate was 16.1%.
– .
