With 191,824 visitors by the end of the third month of the ongoing year, neighboring India remains the top source market for Maldives tourism.

Latest statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism reveal that India remains the top source market for the archipelago nation’s tourism, as the country’s tourist arrivals reached 843,552 by September 22.

While visitors are staying for an average of nine days, the number of tourist arrivals recorded the same period in 2019 was significantly higher. As such, this year’s arrivals so far is 30.8 percent less than the over one million visitors recorded in 2019, but 111.3 percent more than the 399,174 visitors recorded last year.

Tourism Ministry also shared that an average of 3,183 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day based on their statistics.

A total of 87,586 tourists had arrived in the Maldives between September 1 – 22.

This is a 10.4 percent increase in comparison to the same period in 2019, and a 1,329.6 percent increase from the less than 7,000 arrivals recorded in 2020.

As the country inches closer to its tourist arrival target of 1.3 million for the year, the ministry revealed that an average of 3,981 tourists are visiting the Maldives every day during the ongoing month.

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.

Maldives broke its monthly tourist arrivals records with figures topping 143,599 in August.

Tourist arrivals have begun to bounce back with the easing of travel restrictions as well as safety measures against Covid-19.

While Russia continued to dominate the Maldives tourism markets within the first few months of the year after arrivals from India started declining following the travel restrictions imposed on visitors from South Asia back in May as the Covid-19 situation in the region worsened, India has topped the charts and currently dominates the tourism markets contributing 22.7 percent of arrivals.

Russia follows closely at its tail contributing 19.9 percent with 168,221 arrivals by Wednesday. Third comes Germany contributing six percent of the total arrival figure, with 51,031 arrivals.

United States, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and France are also considered some of the biggest tourist markets for the Maldives.

Maldives 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.

During 2020, Maldives recorded 555,494 tourist arrivals, which was a drastic plunge from the previous year’s 1,702,887 arrivals.