More tourists visit Moldova

Moldovan collective accommodation establishments over January-September 2007 housed 263,600 tourists or by 1.3% more compared with the corresponding period last year. Of them, 213,300 or 80.1% were Moldovans and 33,100 or 19.9% foreigners. The rise in the total number of tourists is due to the 14.6% increase in the number of foreign tourists. Of the total available tourist housing capacity summer camps hold 29%, hotels and motels – 27.3%, tourist villas, vacation villages and other accommodation places – 19.9%, health spas –15.9%, tourist and agritourist pensions – 2.7%. The establishments with star rating in the first half of this year accommodated 21.6% of the total number of tourists that stopped in collective tourism accommodation. A large number of tourists that stopped in Moldova were from Romania (21.1%), Ukraine (10.9%), the Russian Federation (9.4%), Turkey (7.8%), Italy (6.8%), the US (5.7%) and Germany (5.2%). The tourist capacity utilization rate in January-September 2007 was 45.4%, in health resorts - 71.1%; in summer camps - 65.0%; in hostels - 59.2%, in tourist and agritourist pensions 46.3%, in tourist villas and other accommodation places under 25.3%. The average duration of a stay in the tourism accommodation establishments in the first nine months of this year was 6.7 days, in hotels and motels 3.3 days, in health resorts 16.3 days, in summer camps 10.1 days, in tourist villas, vacation villages and other accommodation places 4.2 days.