Tourism on a downer !

Foreign trips dip 10.1% y/y in Aug 

Foreign travels to Bulgaria continued the downtrend at the height of the summer season, contracting by 10.1% year-on-year to 1.4 million in August, showed official statistics. Swedes and Danes who used to flock to Bulgarian seaside resorts in previous years chopped trips by 72.5% and 65%, respectively, as the number of Slovenian tourists contracted by 60%. Germans regained interest in Bulgaria making 241,000 visits including 175,000 holiday travels but the other key markets – the UK and Russia – slid by respective 31.9% and 2.8%. Romanians who are the most numerous group at Bulgaria's northern coast trimmed trips by 16.9%. The tourist sector contracted by 12.7% in June and pared the loss to 5.8% in July with revenues plunging deeper than tourist numbers. At the same time, fewer Bulgarians travelled abroad in August, down 7.7% on the year. Trips to Greece and Macedonia picked up 7.5% and 24.6% but visits to Turkey shed 4.1% as most Bulgarians abandoned trips to western Europe where they usually go on business.