Over 20% more tourists have chosen to visit the Republic of Moldova during the period of January to June 2023, according to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics. At the same time, the revenues of travel agencies and tour operators during the same period have increased by nearly 40%.
The total number of tourists in the first six months of the year amounted to 173.4 thousand people. At the same time, the revenues of agencies totaled 1.3 billion lei.
During the examined period, outbound and domestic tourism had the largest share in the total number of tourists and excursionists, accounting for 68.0% and 22.5% respectively, while inbound tourism accounted for 9.5%. In January-June 2023, the data regarding the number of tourists and excursionists who benefited from the services of travel agencies and tour operators exceeded the figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2019 by 14.4 percentage points, the last year before the pandemic.
In January-June 2023, compared to the same period of the previous year, the revenues of travel agencies and tour operators in outbound tourism increased by 347.1 million lei (+38.6%), domestic tourism increased by 22.1 million lei (+39.9%), and inbound tourism increased by 1.3 million lei (+8.9%).
The revenues from tourism activities during the reporting period exceeded 1.4 times the revenues recorded by travel agencies in January-June 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
Officially, in 2022, the Republic of Moldova recorded over 424 thousand tourists, out of which nearly 103 thousand promoted domestic tourism, which is 50% more than the record set in 2020.
Our country boasts numerous tourist attractions that are not sufficiently exploited and have the potential to attract many more visitors. For the development of this sector, hundreds of people and dozens of companies are working, including
Moldova Tours
agency, specialized in inbound tourism.
Promoting the Republic of Moldova as an attractive tourism destination is a shared responsibility of the Government, the Investment Agency, ANTRIM and various institutions within the industry, both public and private.