The National Association for Inbound and Domestic Tourism of Moldova launches the country tourism portal Moldova.travel, a large-scale public-private partnership for the tourism industry. The website becomes a platform to promote Moldovan tourism, accessible in Romanian, English and Russian, and includes a vast number of destinations and tourist experiences in our country, presented through modern, digital and up-to-date content.
The Republic of Moldova will be promoted online through the national tourism promotion portal, http://moldova.travel/, a public-private partnership between inbound and domestic tourism businesses, authorities and development partners, launched publicly this week. The new informative digital resource opens the dialogue about Moldova as a tourist destination in international markets, with a showcase of cultural-tourist heritage and an effective marketing and popularisation tool for Moldova, realised through the joint effort of the Moldova Competitiveness Project funded by USAID, the Government of Sweden and the Government of the United Kingdom and the National Association for Inbound and Domestic Tourism (ANTRIM), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Investment Agency of the Republic of Moldova.
The digital platform to promote the country offers tourists an extensive directory of tourist destinations and experiences in the regions of Moldova, includes 16 interactive virtual tours of several popular destinations, 25 attractively described tourist routes with maps and travel landmarks, including wine-tourism routes, bird-watching, cycling and hiking itineraries, over 500 listed tourist attractions, as well as useful contacts for planning trips to Moldova, all accessible consolidated on a digital portal.
"Cultural-touristic heritage becomes accessible to tourists through this online resource and can convince them to become our guests. The tourist portal www.moldova.travel is unique in our country, by the breadth of informative, educational, creatively visualized content and will become an essential engine to propel the image of the Republic of Moldova as a tourist destination abroad, but also among our compatriots. All appreciation for the colossal effort of the private sector that has developed this tourism portal, which we will make the most of in the promotion and development of tourism in the Republic of Moldova", said Sergiu Prodan, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Moldova.
Moldova.Travel will help boost e-commerce in Moldova's tourism industry by increasing traffic to individual websites of rural guesthouses, cramas, tourist destinations, tour operators, 12 of which were developed with support from the Moldova Competitiveness Project, funded by USAID, the Government of Sweden and the Government of the UK, and 8 websites offer real-time online booking services with electronic payment systems.
"For over a decade USAID has been supporting the development of the tourism industry in Moldova. Tourism businesses offer valuable employment opportunities for Moldovans. This provides an alternative to emigration and stimulates regional economic growth. Despite the difficulties and limitations imposed by the pandemic, people are now willing to travel. Tourists want to be one click away from their next destination and the modernised Moldova.travel website is an excellent source of information about Moldova's tourism offer. Even though the pandemic has affected the tourism industry, our prognosis is optimistic. We hope that moldova.travel will become a source of inspiration for tourists from all over the region and the Moldovan diaspora planning a visit home." - Scott Hocklander, USAID Head of Mission in Moldova.
The digital presence of tourism offerings and the digitization of the tourism industry has become a development imperative, especially in the post-pandemic period. Some 65% of decisions to travel to a travel destination are made online (Euromonitor study), based on accessible content, and 54% of online purchases in Europe are made by the hospitality and tourism sector (OECD study).
"Moldova's tourism industry needs to adapt and respond to the new market digitisation trends. We have worked for over 3 years on this online tourism platform, together with a team of professionals, to develop a modern, attractive website, integrated with mobile devices and capable of maximum indexing on search engines. The challenge for the future is to keep the website alive and updated to the developments of the national tourism offer", said Natalia Țurcanu, ANTRIM Executive Director.
The Ministry of Culture and the Investment Agency of the Republic of Moldova in partnership with the National Association for Inbound and Domestic Tourism of Moldova will develop the digital tourism portal in a framework of public-private collaboration, will implement digital marketing campaigns, advertising in search engines but also in the framework of activities to promote the tourist offer.
The development of the www.moldova.travel website was funded by the Moldova Competitiveness Project of USAID, the Government of Sweden and the UK. Consultants such as Nata Albot (tourism ambassador and journalist), Alex Crevar (international journalist), Diana Isac (tourism expert), Maxim Ciumaș (photographer), Sergiu Lungu (virtual tours), as well as the ANTRIM and Moldova Competitiveness Project team contributed to the development of the content. The website was technically developed by RT Design Studio.