Bulgarian hotels see steep drop in nights spent, revenue in August
Source: Xinhua | 2020-10-13
Bulgarian hotels and motels saw a year-on-year decline of nearly 50 percent in nights spent and revenue in August despite the growth of domestic tourists, official figures showed on Monday.
The total number of the nights spent in all accommodation establishments in August was 3.546 million, down by 44.7 percent from the same month of the previous year, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said.
Meanwhile, the total revenue from nights spent in August reached 198.7 million Bulgarian leva (some 120 million U.S. dollars), down by 47.4 percent year-on-year.
The number of arrivals decreased by 35.5 percent year-on-year to 947,400, the NSI said, noting that "a drop in foreign citizens by 65.1 percent was registered, while for Bulgarian citizens there was an increase -- by 11.7 percent."
The NSI did not explain the reasons for the growth of local tourists. However, it could be partly attributed to the fact that traditional summer destinations for Bulgarians -- such as Greece -- required them to have negative PCR-tests for COVID-19, creating an additional financial burden.
Before the pandemic, Central, and Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, had seen rapid growth of Chinese tourists.
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