Maldives tourist arrivals exceed 457,000

Maldives tourist arrivals have exceeded the 457,000-mark.

The Ministry of Tourism publicized its weekly statistics report on Thursday, highlighting that a total of 457,747 tourists were welcomed at the Velana International Airport (VIA) between January 1 – June 2.

Of the total arrivals, 92,103 tourist arrivals were recorded during January and 96,882 visitors were welcomed during February. Tourist arrivals escalated to 109,585 in the month that followed, making it the highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a monthly basis since borders were reopened for international travel on 15 July 2020, after nearly four months since the government halted issuing on-arrival visas on 27 March 2020.

Maldives recorded a total of 64,613 tourist arrivals during May.

In the first two days of June Maldives welcomed 3,364 tourists, which is 58.6 percent less in comparison to the 8,119 tourist arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019.

According to statistics, visitors are staying for an average of nine days and an average of 2,992 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day.

With arrivals from India, the top source market recorded by the Maldives since border reopening, declining due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country, Russia currently dominates the arrival market contributing 23.4 percent with 107,102 arrivals recorded by Wednesday. Russia was ranked sixth before the Covid-19 pandemic began sweeping across the globe and is followed closely by India making up 19.5 percent with 89,442 arrivals by Wednesday. Third comes Germany contributing 5.5 percent of tourist arrivals. A total of 25,344 tourist arrivals were recorded between January 1 – June 2.

Ukraine, Kazakhstan, United States of America, United Kingdom, Romania, France and Czech Republic are also considered some of the biggest tourist markets for the Maldives.

The ministry boasts increasing tourist arrivals, which were snail-paced into the beginning of the country’s tourism-revival journey. However, the ministry revealed that arrivals had slowed due to the several precautionary measures and restrictions enforced in the face of a Covid-19 surge during May. The ministry went on to reveal that market rebounding continues with positive growth rates this year in comparison to 2020.

In addition tourism ministry revealed that the Central / Eastern Europe and South Asian regions have made full recoveries and performed above pre-Covid levels with Africa, Europe and U.S showing healthy signs of recovery.

Maldives aims to welcome 1.5 million tourist arrivals this ongoing year and is gearing up to mark 50 years since the tourism industry’s inception, in 2022, which is to be celebrated as the golden year of tourism in Maldives.