At the same time, outbound tourism has the highest revenue: travel agencies increased their turnover by 17.4% – up to 378 million lei. The icoming sector earned 10 million lei from foreigners (27% growth). Revenues from domestic tourism jumped only by 1.5% – to 33 million lei.
According to the Patronate Association of Tourism, the profitability of the sector was affected, first of all, by the increase in prices. Secondly, the increase in air routes of the Chisinau airport had an impact. And also – the Ukrainian tourist flow, which is still served by our tour operators.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in terms of the number of tourists, the greatest revival was inbound (+61.7%) and outbound tourism (+11.1%). Whereas in domestic tourism in January-April there was a decline of 21.5%.
In the first quarter of 2025, 34 thousand tourists (+ 11%) traveled abroad through travel agencies in Moldova. The absolute majority – 98% of the total number, went abroad for leisure purposes.
Moldovan tourists mainly vacationed in Egypt (35,5%) and Romania (25,4%). Turkey (10.3%), Bulgaria (5.1%), UAE (5.1%) and Italy (2.9%) followed.
The number of excursionists of domestic tourism amounted to 12.6 thousand people, having decreased by 21.5%. At the same time, most of them (70.3%) were day visitors.
As for foreign tourists, there were 12,6 thousand of them, which is 61,7% more than in the same period of the previous year. The majority came to Moldova from Romania – 89.2% of all foreigners.
