13 percent more tourists visited Sofia in 2017

Every year Sofia welcomes more and more foreign and Bulgarian guests while offering opportunities for various types of tourism.

Compared to 2016 in 2017 there was an increase of 13% in the number of tourists that stayed at accommodation establishments as well as an increase of 15% in the number of realized overnight stays.

In 2017 Sofia was visited by 1 346 993 tourists, 65% of whom were foreigners. Most of the tourists were from Italy (69,574), Great Britain (64,716), Germany (61,585), Greece (57,734) and Israel (51,472). The highest increase was recorded among tourists from the Netherlands (+57%), Spain (+51%), Ireland (+ 51%), Belgium (+40%) and Italy (+36%).

Sofia was also visited by people from faraway countries. In addition to tourists from the US, Sofia is becoming a more and more interesting destination for tourists from China (+48%), India (+ 31%) and Australia (+15%). It is important to note that in 2017 almost all markets reported a growth and there was a decrease in the number of tourists from Norway (-11%), Armenia (-7%), Slovenia (-3%) and Canada (-2%) only.

The number of overnight stays increased by 15% and in 2017 their total number was 2 444 684. The nights spent by Bulgarians were 770 201 - 32 % of all overnight stays. Among foreigners the greatest number of overnight stays was realized by visitors from Italy (150,313), the United Kingdom (131,486) and Israel (120,071), while the highest increase was recorded among tourists from the Netherlands (62,49%), Ireland (61,46%) and Spain 54.10%).

The average length of stay of visitors in Sofia remained unchanged – 1.8 days: for Bulgarian guests it was 1.7 days, while for foreigners – 1.9 days. Guests from Georgia (average 2.7 days), Belarus (2.7 days) and Latvia (2.6 days) stayed the longest.