Moldova's tourism in numbers 2020–2026
From the pandemic collapse to consecutive records. How many visitors, how much money and how fast the market grows.
In 2020, tourism in Moldova almost stopped. Five years on, the country reports one record after another. We gathered the official figures to see how real the growth is, how much money it means, and what it says for anyone helping people discover Moldova's places.
Method note: the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) figures below cover tourism organized through agencies and tour operators · a subset of the market. The actual flow of visitors at the border is considerably larger. 2025–2026 data is preliminary. Every figure has a source at the foot of the page.
A small market, dominated by departures.
Moldova's organized tourism is mostly about Moldovans leaving. Of the roughly 556 thousand visitors moved through agencies in 2024, almost three quarters were trips abroad. Inbound tourism · foreigners coming to Moldova · is still small in absolute numbers.
But that's exactly where the story is. The small segment is the one growing fastest, and when foreigners do come, nearly two in three are from Romania. A market at the start of its road, with a very clear core audience.
The market is dominated by outbound, but the growth engine is inbound · exactly the segment where the destination's future is played out.
A collapse, then a threefold rise.
In 2020, closed borders drove organized tourism close to zero: in Q2 of that year, only 660 tourists passed through agencies. The recovery was slow in 2021, then faster and faster.
Total visitors via agencies
Thousands of visitors (agency tourism, all segments). Source: BNS. The 2021 value is derived from the reported +48.7% growth for 2022.
Foreign visitors only
Thousands of foreign visitors via agencies. Source: BNS / Infotag. 2020 was the collapse year: in Q2, only 660 tourists.
The total number of visitors via agencies climbed from about 321 thousand in 2021 to nearly 556 thousand in 2024. And foreign visitors · the key segment · almost tripled in three years.
In a single year, foreign visitors grew by 55%. In three years, they nearly tripled. This is not a statistical accident.
How we got here
- 2020COVID collapse. Borders closed; in Q2, only 660 tourists via agencies.
- 2022The war in Ukraine hits the region's perception, yet organized tourism still grows (+21% foreign).
- 2023Firm recovery: foreign visitors reach 43.6k, above the pre-pandemic level.
- 2024Record year: 67.6k foreign visitors (+55%), 556k total via agencies.
- 2026The "Tourism 2029" programme · 618m lei of state investment; Q1 2026 brings 300k tourists, a high.
Three segments, one engine.
All three forms of tourism now grow in parallel · in Jan–Sep 2025, domestic jumped 21% and inbound 29%. And the map of where foreigners come from is unexpectedly concentrated.
The three segments · 2024
Where the foreigners come from · 2024
The top four markets (Romania, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria) make up 82.9% of foreign visitors. Source: BNS / EU Tourism Platform.
When an audience is 67% Romanian, "content in Romanian" isn't a niche choice. It's the core strategy.
The g0.md editorial
Over 5 billion lei, and a state bet.
Tourism revenue passed 4.2 billion lei in just the first nine months of 2025, with over 5 billion for the full year. And the state has decided to lean in: the "Tourism 2029" programme brings hundreds of millions into infrastructure and jobs.
The money we're talking about
Demand is rising and the state is investing at the same time · a rare combination that usually opens a window of a few years.
The window is open now.
Domestic and inbound grow together, the core audience is clear, and discovery still runs through agencies and Google Maps · a clean editorial guide fills exactly that gap. Behind the numbers are real places. Here are a few regions we've mapped:
Sources
- BNS · turism ian–sep 2025 (480,7 mii vizitatori, venituri 4,2 mld lei) · MOLDPRES
- Turism inbound +44% în H1 2025 · MOLDPRES
- Programul „Turism 2029" · 618 mln lei, 600 mln investiții · MOLDPRES
- Fluxul turiștilor străini +21% (2022 = 29 mii) · Infotag
- Statistica turismului · Biroul Național de Statistică
- Ministerul Turismului · turism.gov.md