Bulgarian hotel revenues up 2% Q1 2011 Y/Y

novinite.com, 17 May 2011

The total number of accommodation facilities in Bulgaria - hotels, motels, camping sites, mountain chalets and others increased by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2011, compared to the same period of 2010.

Meanwhile, rooms and beds in them decreased by 5.1% and by 6.8% respectively.

The data was released Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute, NSI.

In the first quarter of 2011, 2 041 accommodation facilities with more than 10 beds were functioned in the country. The number of rooms in them was 51.1 thousand, while the number of beds - 108.7 thousand.

In the first quarter of 2011, the total number of nights spent in accommodation facilities was 1 558.6 thousand and rise by 63.7 thousand (4.3%) compared to same period of 2010.

In the first quarter of 2011, the number of nights spent by Bulgarian citizens in accommodation facilities was 881.5 thousand and increased by 77.0 thousand (9.6%) compared to the same quarter of 2010.

At the same time the number of the nights spent by foreigners in accommodation facilities decreased by 1.9%.

An increase of stays was registered for residents of the following countries: Iceland – by 313.4%, Republic of Korea - by 145.6%, Switzerland - by 140.9%, Ukraine - by 52.6%, Croatia – by 52.6%, Turkey - by 37.9%, People's Rep. of China - by 22.9%, Australia – by 18.4%, etc.

A decrease in the nights spent in accommodation facilities by foreigners was observed for Portugal - by 52.3%, Denmark - by 43.0%, Hungary - by 38.6%, Belgium - by 38.0%, South Africa - by 33.5%, Austria - by 32.2%, Luxembourg - by 31.0%, Slovakia - by 23.9%, Spain - by 23.9%, Japan – by 19.8%, Germany - by 19.0%, Malta - by 16.1%, etc.

In the first quarter of 2011, the total number of arrivals in accommodation facilities increased by 25.0 thousand (3.8%) and was 680.2 thousand.

The relative share of arrivals of Bulgarian citizens was 67.3% of all arrivals. The number arrivals of foreigners in accommodation facilities decreased by 3.2 thousand (1.4%) compared to the same period of the previous year. The greatest share was registered for citizens from Greece (17.6%).

Almost all foreigners (98.8%) preferred to spend the night in hotels and the rest 1.2% - in other accommodation facilities.

The total occupation of the beds in accommodation facilities in the first quarter of 2011 was 16.3% which was 1.4 percentage points above the registered in the same period of 2010.

The total revenue from nights spent in the accommodation establishments increased by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010, reaching BGN 75.2 M, but revenues from nights spent by foreigners decreased by 1.6% - down to BGN 0.7 M.