Moldova tourism shatters records with 252k visitors in Q3
The year 2025 marks the best results in the history of Moldovan tourism, states Veaceslav Ioniță, an economic policy expert at the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) "Viitorul."
Between July and September, travel agencies in the Republic of Moldova served 252,000 people—the highest figure ever reported in a single quarter.
A Paradigm Shift in Travel
The growth in organized tourism is attributed both to foreigners visiting the Republic of Moldova and to Moldovan citizens who increasingly prefer to spend their holidays domestically.
"Organized domestic tourism, which for years hovered around 50,000 annual tourists, has registered a remarkable surge. In the third quarter, the annual volume reached 187,000 people, comprising 82,300 foreign tourists and 105,000 Moldovans. By the end of the year, the figure could hit 200,000, an absolute record," Ioniță declared during his program on November 28.
The visitor influx is mainly generated by two countries: 56% of tourists come from Romania, and 14% from Italy, together accounting for 70% of the total.
The expert highlighted a significant shift: While in 2019, the ratio was 16 Moldovans traveling abroad for every foreign tourist visiting the country, today that ratio has dropped significantly to 5 to 1.
Three-Quarters of Moldovans Rarely Take a Vacation
A national survey conducted by IDIS "Viitorul" reveals a diversified behavior among Moldovan tourists. While 60% of citizens rarely or almost never go on holiday, and 20% do so infrequently, for 16.5% annual vacations are a habit, and 3.5% have turned travel into a lifestyle.
The share of Moldovans who organize their trips abroad is steadily increasing: from 1% in 1996–2000 to 16.4% in 2024. Ioniță estimates the real potential to be 20–25% of the population.
In the third quarter of this year, 398,000 Moldovans organized holidays abroad, compared to 397,000 in 2024.
"In 2021, for every dollar brought in by foreign visitors, Moldovans spent $130 abroad. Today the ratio has narrowed to 57 to 1," the expert added.
The Post-Pandemic Explosion
The tourist guesthouse sector, which consistently hosted around 15,000 tourists before 2020, has exploded since the pandemic. In the third quarter of this year, guesthouses accommodated 63,300 tourists, including both foreign and domestic visitors, Ioniță noted.
The expert emphasized the growing number of foreign tourists across all forms of accommodation in the Republic of Moldova: from 174,000 in 2019 to an estimated 285,000–290,000 for 2025.
Currently, 30% of foreign tourists visit the Republic of Moldova in an organized manner, compared to 12% before the pandemic.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
