Over 50,000 arrivals from the over 140,000 tourist arrivals recorded during August were from India.

Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL)’s General Manager of Terminal Operations, Ibrahim Hussain revealed that the previous month of August, was one that saw a high number of arrivals in recent history.

Highlighting that 143,599 arrivals were recorded during the month, Hussain noted that this is highest number of visitors to have been recorded so far this year.

Of the total arrivals of August, 54,094 were recorded from neighboring India, with Russia following closely at its tail with 17,069 arrivals. Third highest arrival figures were recorded from Germany, at 9,916.

This comes at a time the Minister of Tourism Dr. Abdulla Mausoom had revealed that India is expected to be the country’s top source market by the end of the year, despite a drastic drop in arrivals from the neighboring country in the last few months. Authorities halted issuing on arrival visas to travelers from South Asia in May. This was resumed on July 15 as announced by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Of the total arrivals figure recorded so far this year, 92,103 tourist arrivals were recorded during January and 96,882 visitors were welcomed during February. Arrivals in March were at 109,585 making it the second highest figure recorded so far in 2021. In April Maldives welcomed 91,200 arrivals, followed by 64,613 visitors in May.

The number dropped to 56,166 during the month that followed, which the ministry believed to be linked to the restrictions and precautionary measures implemented in the face of a worsening Covid-19 situation as a fourth and more infectious wave was confirmed in early May. July saw 101,818 visitors welcomed into the Maldives.

Hussain expressed hopes for the figures to continue increasing into October November and December, deemed the peak season for Maldives tourism.

He added that hopes are high that the country will reach its 1.3 million tourist arrival target set for this year.

Arrivals recorded so far this year are a 91.2 percent increase from those recorded in the same period last year.

Maldives broke its monthly tourist arrivals records during August. The previous record was set in March.

By August 29, a total of 749,186 tourists were welcomed in the Maldives since the start of the promising year, with which Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrivals target of 1.3 million for 2021. During 2020, Maldives recorded 555,494 tourist arrivals, which was a drastic plunge from the previous year’s 1,702,887 arrivals.