Maldives tourist arrivals for 2021 has already exceeded arrivals for the previous year.

According to the latest figures by the Ministry of Tourism, 564,228 visitors were recorded from 1 January to 18 July.

92,103 arrivals were recorded in January with 96,882 visitor recorded in February, 109,585 in March, 91,200 in April, 64,613 in May and 56,166 arrivals in June.

While 53,679 arrivals have been recorded thus far in July, tourist arrivals is expected to continue increasing with the reopening of borders to travelers from South Asia on July 15.

A total of 555,494 tourist arrivals were recorded in 2020 – a drastic decline from the previous year’s record breaking 1.7 million.

As per the ministry’s figures, Russia is the top source market for tourism so far this year with India in second and Germany taking the third spot. Other nations in the top ten visitors list include Ukraine, United States, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Romania and France.

The tourism industry, Maldives’ most lucrative industry, took a toll last year as authorities were forced to close its borders from 27th March to 15th July following the Covid-19 outbreak.

The country aims to welcome 1.5 million tourists this year.