Number of tourists up 5%

In the first 9 months of the year, travel agencies in Moldova had over 163,000 customers, which is 4.8% more than in the same period last year, Info-Prim Neo learned from the National Bureau of Statistics. The number of tourists and trippers in inbound tourism increased by 12% and by 7% in outbound tourism. Meanwhile, domestic tourism dropped by 8%. Of the 9000 foreign tourists that came to Moldova between January and September 2012, 52.9% came for rest, recreation and leisure and 41% came for business purposes. 5.5% of tourists came to Moldova for treatment. Most of the foreign tourists are from Russia 16.6% and Romania 13.7%. The others are mostly from Germany, Turkey, Great Britain, Italy, USA and Poland. In the same period, 128,000 Moldovan tourists went abroad, 7.3% more than last year. Most of them went for rest, recreation and leisure, about 97%. The most popular destinations are Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine and Romania. Only 26,000 tourists and trippers engaged in domestic tourism.