SOFIA: Bulgarian hotels and motels saw a year-on-year decline of over 60 percent in nights spent and revenue in July due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, official figures showed on Friday.
The total number of nights spent in accommodation establishments in July 2020 was 2.266 million, down by 61.9 percent compared with the same month of the previous year, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said.
The number of arrivals decreased by 52.7 percent year-on-year to 613,200, the NSI said, adding that drops of 77.1 percent and 12.0 percent were registered respectively among foreign guests and Bulgarian visitors.
Bulgarian citizens spent 427,000 nights in accommodation establishments in July 2020, about 3.1 nights each on average, while foreigners spent 186,200 nights, 5.1 nights each on average, the NSI said.
Meanwhile, the total revenue from nights spent in July reached 122.4 million Bulgarian leva (some 74 million U.S. dollars), down by 64.6 percent year-on-year.
“A drop from foreigners by 77.1 percent was registered and the decrease from Bulgarians was by 11.6 percent,” the NSI added.
Before the pandemic, Central and Eastern European countries including Bulgaria had seen rapid growth of Chinese tourists. According to a report jointly issued by the China Tourism Academy and China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip last August, Chinese tourists made 3 million visits to Europe in the first half of 2019, marking a 7.4-percent rise year on year. The number of Chinese tourists to Slovenia and Bulgaria surged by more than 400 percent.–Agencies
