Nearly 100,000 tourists welcomed so far in April

Nearly 100,000 tourists have been welcomed in the country so far in April.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest daily tourist arrival statistics publicized on Wednesday.

Between April 1 – 16, a total of 94,889 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).

This, the ministry said is an 8.3 percent increase in comparison to the 87,653 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and much higher than the 81,888 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.

About 5,931 tourists are arriving on average every day during this month, and tourists are staying in the Maldives for seven days.

Further, the ministry revealed that since the new year began, Maldives has welcomed a total of 698,893 visitors.

During January the country welcomed 192,385 visitors, followed by 217,392 in February and 194,227 during March.

The ministry revealed that arrivals so far this year, are a 14.3 percent increase from the 611,581 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 513,412 arrivals recorded in 2022.

The daily average for 2024 so far, is 6,532 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.

Looking at the daily arrivals for April:

5,297 tourists were welcomed on April 1
6,114 tourists were welcomed on April 2
4,943 tourists were welcomed on April 3
4,976 tourists were welcomed on April 4
5,533 tourists were welcomed on April 5
6,906 tourists were welcomed on April 6
6,802 tourists were welcomed on April 7
5,829 tourists were welcomed on April 8
6,424 tourists were welcomed on April 9
6,441 tourists were welcomed on April 10
6,639 tourists were welcomed on April 11
6,232 tourists were welcomed on April 12
6,122 tourists were welcomed on April 13
6,349 tourists were welcomed on April 14
5,256 tourists were welcomed on April 15
5,026 tourists were welcomed on April 16

The highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a daily basis so far this year, was on February 10, when more than 10,000 tourist arrivals were recorded.

Statistics go on to indicate that while the new year began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation it was replaced by Russia for a few weeks and China currently sits at the top of the list, contributing 10.7 percent of the market share with 74,833 arrivals by April 17.

Although Russia ranked second place for the past few months, it was recently replaced by the United Kingdom. UK now contributes 10 percent of the market share with 70,064 arrivals recorded so far.

Russia dominated the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023.

Russia currently ranks third place in the top 10 markets, contributing 9.9 percent of the market share with 69,432 arrivals.

Although India was among the top three source markets into the beginning of the year, it was replaced by China.

Other top tourist markets so far in 2024 are:

Italy contributing 9.1 percent with 63,311 arrivals
Germany contributing 7.9 percent with 55,233 arrivals
India contributing 5.6 percent with 39,034 arrivals
France contributing 3.8 percent with 26,562 arrivals
United States contributing 3.5 percent with 24,292 arrivals
Switzerland contributing 2.5 percent with 17,464 arrivals
Poland contributing 2.1 percent with 14,900 arrivals

Statistics go on to reveal that a total of 1,181 tourist facilities are currently open for services to tourists across the archipelago nation, including 176 resorts, 15 hotels, 843 guesthouses and 147 liveaboard vessels.

62,226 beds are operational across these facilities including 43,224 in resorts, 14,163 in guesthouses, 2,016 in hotels and 2,823 in liveaboard vessels.

The first tourist visitor of the new year was welcomed during a special ceremony held at VIA in the early hours of January 1.

Welcoming the first tourist of 2024 to the Maldives, Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Faisal noted that this is a fantastic start to what promises to be another successful year for the Maldives’ tourism industry. He expressed keen interest in diversifying and exploring additional markets to reach this year’s arrival target. Maldives welcomed 1.8 million tourists in 2023 and aspires to welcome two million tourists this year.

Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972. It has been 52 years since zealous travelers have been visiting the Maldives which has been drawing in visitors with its picturesque beauty for years.