How many tourists came to Bucharest in 2025. What the official data shows
By Raluca Ogaru
- Articles
- 30 MAY 26
Bucharest was the city with the highest number of tourist arrivals in accommodation establishments in Romania in 2025. According to data published by the National Institute of Statistics, the capital recorded 2,053,700 tourist arrivals in tourist accommodation establishments, including hotels, apartments and rooms for rent. In terms of overnight stays, Bucharest reached 4,147,900 nights of accommodation, being surpassed only by Constanța County.
The data must be read correctly: “tourist arrivals” does not mean the total number of all people who visited Bucharest in 2025, but the number of tourists registered in tourist accommodation establishments. This means that day visitors, people who stayed with relatives or friends, or those who passed through the city without staying in a statistically reported accommodation unit are not included. Even so, the indicator remains the most important official benchmark for the city’s tourism activity.
Bucharest, first in tourist arrivals in 2025
At national level, arrivals registered in tourist accommodation establishments amounted to 13,917,700 people in 2025, down 2.4% compared with 2024, according to the INS release on tourism activity in December and throughout 2025. Of this total, Romanian tourists represented 81.4%, while foreign tourists accounted for 18.6%. The data is published in the INS release on tourism in December 2025 and in 2025.
By counties and municipalities, Bucharest had the highest number of tourist arrivals in the country: 2,053,700 people. The next positions were held by Constanța, with 1,809,300 arrivals, and Brașov, with 1,389,000 arrivals. In other words, the capital attracted around 14.8% of all tourist arrivals officially registered in Romania in 2025.
In terms of overnight stays, the order changes. Constanța ranked first, with 5,552,500 overnight stays, followed by Bucharest, with 4,147,900 overnight stays, and Brașov, with 2,618,000 overnight stays. The difference is understandable: the seaside attracts longer stays, while Bucharest functions more as an urban destination for city breaks, business travel, events, transit and cultural tourism.
What the data shows for the capital
Based on the number of overnight stays and the number of arrivals, the estimated average length of stay in Bucharest was around 2 nights per tourist in 2025. This figure fits the tourism profile of the capital: short visits, business trips, events, conferences, concerts, city breaks and journeys combined with other destinations in Romania.
The Regional Directorate of Statistics of the Municipality of Bucharest periodically publishes reports dedicated to tourism activity in the capital. On the official DRS Bucharest website, there is a separate section for tourism activity in the Municipality of Bucharest, including data for 2025.
A useful benchmark also comes from the data for the first 11 months of the year. According to the Regional Directorate of Statistics Bucharest, between January and November 2025, the capital recorded 1,878,099 arrivals and 3,784,121 overnight stays. The peak was reached in October 2025, with 211,032 arrivals and 425,884 overnight stays, while January had the lowest values: 129,458 arrivals and 265,383 overnight stays. The data appears in the DRS Bucharest analysis on the evolution of tourism activity in the Municipality of Bucharest and at national level.
When most tourists came to Bucharest
The available data for the first 11 months of the year shows that October was the strongest tourism month for Bucharest in 2025. This evolution is relevant for the city’s profile: autumn brings business events, conferences, concerts, fairs, city breaks and short trips, while Bucharest has an advantage over seasonal destinations.
By contrast, January was the month with the lowest tourist flow. This is natural for an urban destination that does not depend on classic winter tourism, as mountain areas do. For Bucharest, the more active months are those in which business tourism, cultural events, weekend visits and domestic travel overlap.
In the third quarter of 2025, Bucharest attracted 464,663 tourists, who generated 909,367 overnight stays in the city’s tourist accommodation establishments, according to the Regional Directorate of Statistics Bucharest. This period includes July, August and September and shows that, although Bucharest is not a classic summer holiday destination, the city continues to attract a steady flow of visitors.
Hotels remain the main form of accommodation
In the first 11 months of 2025, most arrivals in Bucharest were recorded in hotels: 1,570,370 arrivals, representing 83.6% of the total for the January-November period. Apartments and rooms for rent followed with 245,524 arrivals, or 13.07% of the total. These figures show that hotels remain the dominant form of tourist accommodation in the capital, even though short-term rental apartments have become increasingly visible in recent years.
For Bucharest, this structure is important. The city attracts many business tourists, event participants, delegations, city break visitors and foreign tourists who look for quick access to the centre, transport and predictable services. This is why 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels continue to play a major role in the capital’s tourism activity.
In May 2025, for example, 189,594 people stayed in accommodation establishments in Bucharest, according to an analysis published by DRS Bucharest. The same source shows that hotels remained the preferred option for tourists, confirming the trend observed throughout the year.
What the figures say about Bucharest’s tourism profile
Bucharest does not compete with the seaside or mountain resorts through the length of stay, but through the large volume of arrivals. The fact that the city leads in the number of accommodated tourists, but ranks second in overnight stays, shows that visits are shorter. The capital is an entry point into the country, a business centre, a place for major events and an urban destination for long weekends.
Another indirect indicator of the city’s attractiveness is air traffic. The Bucharest Airports National Company states on its official website that the two main airports it manages, Henri Coandă and Băneasa, were used by more than 17 million passengers in 2025. This indicator does not directly measure the number of tourists, but it shows Bucharest’s role as Romania’s main air gateway.
For the city, the data suggests a clear direction: Bucharest attracts a large volume of tourist traffic, but still needs to turn more short visits into longer stays. Museums, guided tours, cultural events, local gastronomy, historic neighbourhoods, nightlife and connections with destinations around the capital can all help increase the average length of stay.
What to remember
In 2025, Bucharest recorded 2,053,700 tourist arrivals in accommodation establishments, ranking first in Romania by this indicator. In terms of overnight stays, the capital reached 4,147,900 nights of accommodation, ranking second after Constanța. The figures come from INS data on tourism activity in 2025.
These values do not show the number of all visitors who passed through Bucharest, but the number of tourists accommodated in statistically reported tourist establishments. Day visitors, those staying with relatives or friends and people in transit without accommodation are not fully captured by this indicator.
The data confirms that Bucharest is Romania’s main urban destination by number of tourist arrivals. At the same time, the average stay of around two nights shows that the city functions mainly as a city break, business, events and transit destination, rather than as a long-stay holiday destination.
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