Bulgaria's total 2011 income from foreign tourists will reach EUR 2,7 B, according to estimates from the National Tourism Board, an NGO.

Thus, in 2011, Bulgaria's income from foreign tourists will grow by 4.5%, while the total number of foreign tourists who visited the country will be 14% greater. Earlier estimates put their total number at over 6 million.

At the same time, the total income from Bulgarian tourists will reach BGN 1.5 B, or about EUR 770 M, the Board has estimated, as cited by bTV.

The highest increase in the number of visitors has been registered by the tourists from Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, while the increases of the numbers of British and German tourists are smaller.

The tourism experts are pointing out to a growing trend of tourists from Romania and other Eastern European / former communist bloc countries traveling to Bulgaria for their vacations by car. This has led them to insist on notable improvements of the roads and other infrastructure.