The tourism industry of the Republic of Moldova in 2022 had fully recovered after the collapse caused by the pandemic in 2020, said economist Veaceslav Ioniță, expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”. Statistics show that the number of tourists served by tour operators last year grew by 50% to 477,000, IPN reports.

According to Veaceslav Ioniță domestic tourism in 2022 involved 124,000 tourists, which is three times more than before the pandemic. The pandemic in 2020 offered a unique opportunity to domestic tourism and the local travel agencies managed to maximally take this opportunity. Before the pandemic, the domestic tourism accounted for 15% of all the tourists, while in 2022 the figure was 25% already and the trend was clearly upward.

The war in Ukraine also influenced the tourism sector. Most of the Moldovans before the war in Ukraine preferred to vacation in Ukraine individually, without using the services of travel agencies. The war in Ukraine significantly reduced the number of Moldovans who went to vacation in Ukraine on their own. A considerable part of them went on their own to other countries, most probably to Romania and Bulgaria, but many used the services of travel agencies, noted Veaceslav Ioniță.

The number of foreigners who decide to visit Moldova for tourist purposes in an organized way, through travel agencies, also rose. Moldova hasn’t yet reached the record of 300,000 tourists who annually visited the country earlier. The figure now stands at 30,000 foreign tourists, which is only 10% of what was earlier, but is twice more than the average of 15,000 that has persisted for 30 years, stated the expert.