In the first eight months of 2025, Sibiu County recorded a record tourist performance, with a 10% increase in the number of visitors, in contrast to a slight decrease at national level. This development consolidates Sibiu’s position as a major destination, especially for foreign tourists, placing it in second place in the country by number of international visitors, after the capital and Brasov County.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (NSI) for the period January-August 2025, Sibiu attracted 405,078 tourists, of which 292,000 Romanians and 112,000 foreigners, representing the best result in the last 35 years. The number of foreign visitors increased from 98,411 in the same period in 2024. In the national ranking according to the number of foreign tourists, Sibiu is surpassed only by Brasov (131,000) and Bucharest (687,000). In terms of the share of foreign tourists in the total number of visitors, Sibiu is in fourth place nationally with 27.89%, after Bucharest (53.2%), Ilfov (42.13%) and Timis (29.7%). The average length of stay in the county was 1.5 nights.
Nationally, 9.67 million tourists were recorded during the same period, 162,000 fewer than in 2024. The drop is attributed by tourism operators to financial problems and a 60% reduction in the value of holiday vouchers. The largest percentage decreases were recorded in the counties of Argeș (-38%), Teleorman (-29.8%) and Satu Mare (-19.13%), while significant increases were recorded in Olt (+24.2%) and Vrancea (+22.6%). In absolute terms, Sibiu, with 42,000 more tourists, had the second largest increase after Constanța (+46,000). The total number of foreign tourists in Romania was 1.67 million, representing 17.2% of the total. At the opposite pole, Teleorman county registered only 103 foreign tourists in the analyzed period.
Alin Chipăilă, director of the Sibiu County Tourism Agency, qualified the official figures, noting that growth in the market is not uniformly perceived by all operators, with some recording stagnation or even a decline. He emphasized the impact of the share economy, a segment which has grown by 25% in the last year and which is not fully reflected in the traditional statistics. Chipăilă added that the statistics may be a partial sample and that HORECA operators often focus more on revenue growth per room than on the volume of tourists.
Financial data for the year 2024 shows that the HORECA industry in Brasov is significantly larger than in Sibiu. In Brașov, the 2,066 companies in the sector (hotels, restaurants, bars) generated a total turnover of approximately EUR 238.4 million and a profit of EUR 30.1 million, with 6,310 employees. By comparison, the 1,324 companies in Sibiu had a total turnover of about EUR 100.9 million and a profit of EUR 10.1 million, with 2,287 employees.