The number of tourists from abroad who have visited Sofia over the January – June 2015 period is up by 5.7 percent; the number of  tourists from Bulgaria stands at over 291,000, according to data of the Tourism municipal enterprise. Data from the past five years show an annual rise in the number of  visitors to Sofia. However, the number of foreign tourists to Bulgaria this summer is down by some 20 percent compared to last year, said Deputy Minister of Tourism Irena Georgieva, adding that the drop was mostly due to dwindling numbers of tourists from Russia and Ukraine, as well as some Central European countries.