Foreign Travel to and from Bulgaria Records Strong Growth in December 2025

Foreign travel activity picked up noticeably toward the end of 2025, with both outbound trips by Bulgarians and inbound visits by foreigners posting their strongest growth in months, according to data from the National Statistical Institute. In December 2025, Bulgarian citizens made a total of 773.3 thousand trips abroad. This represented an increase of 6.3% compared to December 2024. The rise reflects a steady recovery in cross-border mobility, following more moderate growth earlier in the year. Over the same period, Bulgaria welcomed 888.4 thousand foreign visitors. Their number was up by 6.6%, marking the most pronounced monthly increase since June 2024. This was a clear acceleration compared to October 2024, when foreign visits rose by just 2.9%. Transit travel remained a significant component of inbound movement, accounting for 30.2% of all foreign visits in November, or 267.9 thousand people. Looking at the purpose of travel, the largest share of trips made by Bulgarian citizens in December fell into the category of “other purposes”, such as visiting relatives, education, or participation in cultural and sporting events. These trips accounted for 36.8% of the total. Travel for holidays and excursions followed, while business trips made up 20.2%. In terms of destinations, Turkey remained the most popular country for Bulgarians traveling abroad in December, with 197.8 thousand trips recorded. Greece ranked second with 138.5 thousand trips, followed by Romania with 93.9 thousand, Serbia with 69.2 thousand, Germany with 48.7 thousand, and the Republic of North Macedonia with 32.6 thousand. As for inbound tourism, citizens of European Union member states made up 56% of all foreign visitors to Bulgaria in December 2025, totaling 497.3 thousand. Among them, Romanians represented the largest group, accounting for 34.2% of EU visits, followed by Greeks with 29.1%. Visitors from other European countries outside the EU numbered 332.3 thousand, or 37.4% of all arrivals. Overall, the highest number of visits to Bulgaria at the end of 2025 came from Turkey with 174.8 thousand arrivals. Romania followed closely with 170.1 thousand, while Greece accounted for 144.6 thousand visits. Significant numbers were also recorded from Serbia at 55.2 thousand, Germany at 50.1 thousand, Ukraine at 44.0 thousand, and the Republic of North Macedonia at 40.3 thousand.