The National Bureau of Statistics, the Tourism Agency and the Border Police signed a trilateral agreement to ensure access to a centralized database concerning the real number of tourists coming to and leaving Moldova, IPN reports.
Under the agreement, the National Bureau of Statistics will have access to the Border Police’s data about the number of tourists. The statistical data will be then furnished to the Tourism Agency.
Tourism Agency director general Nicolae Platon told a news conference that the Agency now receives data about tourists who purchase offers from travel agencies, but does not possess information about online purchases. As a result, the real number of tourists who come to Moldova is not known. The figures presented by the accommodation units and the travel agencies differ.
“The data concerning organized tourism in 2014 show that about 94,000 foreigners stopped at collective accommodation units, while the statistics of travel agencies show that 14,400 foreign tourists came to Moldova in the period. We thus decided to adjust the statistics in the area of tourism by including two new indicators, namely the arrivals by foreign visitors, which is the number of state border crossings by foreigners registered when entering Moldova, and the leavings by Moldovan travelers, which is the number of state border crossings by Moldovan citizens registered when leaving the country,” stated Nicolae Platon.
He noted that there will also be obtained information about the traveler’s age and sex, the type of transport used and the country of origin. The inclusion of the two new indicators will contribute to increasing the country’s touristic visibility and to improving Moldova’s position in the international rankings.
