The number of trips of Bulgarian residents abroad rose by 11.3% on the year in August, reaching 512,000, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on 28 September.

Last month, trips by Bulgarian residents to Turkey increased by 35.2% compared with August 2014, trips to Greece rose by 23.3% and those to Italy increased by 8.9%, the NSI said in a statement.

A decrease was registered in the number of trips of Bulgarian residents to Russia - by 31.7%, to Serbia (- 22.4%), the UK (-7.2%), Macedonia (- 6.8%).

Most of the trips by Bulgarian residents abroad in August were made with the purpose of education, visiting friends and relatives or attending sports and cultural events (44.2%), followed by trips with vacation and recreational purposes (41.9%) and business trips (13.9%), the NSI said.

The number of visits by foreign residents increased by 2.3% year-on-year last month, reaching 1.73 million. The number of trips with the purpose of education, visiting friends and relatives or attending sports and cultural events increased by 6.4%, vacationing and recreational trips edged up by 0.4%, while business trips decreased by 3.4%.

Visits by residents of other EU member states were 57.8% of all visits by foreign nationals last month, a decrease of 0.9% compared with August 2014.