The Moldovan travel agencies and tour operators in the first half of this year provided services to about 87,000 tourists, down 9% on the similar period in 2015.

The National Statistics Bureau says the overall reduction was due to a 15% drop in inbound tourists and 10.9% drop in outbound tourists, and was slightly counterbalanced by a 2.1% rise in internal tourists.

Of the 5,700 foreign travelers visiting Moldova through agencies and operators, most did so for vacation, leisure and entertainment purposes. Tourists mostly came in from Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Germany and the United States, in that order.

About 64,000 Moldovan tourists chose travel agencies and tour operators to journey abroad, 98.9% of them for vacation purposes, with the top three destinations being Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.

The number of internal tourists rose to about 16,500, with the Chisinau-based agencies and operators holding the lion's share.