Second highest tourist arrivals for 2021 recorded in October

Maldives recorded the second highest tourist arrival numbers so far in 2021, during October.

According to the latest figures publicized by the Ministry of Tourism, October saw 142,066 visitors welcomed at Velana International Airport, which is a significant increase from the 21,515 arrivals recorded during the same month in 2020. This is the second highest figure recorded so far in 2021, since tourist arrivals escalated to 143,599 in August.

Tourist arrivals were maintained at an average of 4,686 on a daily basis during October, with their stay period recorded at an average of eight days.

Maldives crossed the one millionth tourist arrival target for the year on October 29. A total of 1,017,614 tourists were welcomed in the Maldives between January 1 – November 1. With this Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrivals target for the ongoing year, set at 1.3 million.

A colorful celebration was held at the airport to welcome the one millionth tourist of the year, French national Vincent Victor Corentin Pitau who has visited Maldives 20 times so far and plans to return in February 2022. Minister of Tourism Dr. Abdulla Mausoom revealed that yet another page of the remarkable success story of Maldives tourism had been turned with the milestone. He added that reaching the milestone two months ahead was a remarkable achievement, further adding that the success would not have been possible without the support from the government, industry partners and employees as well as health professionals, local councils, related ministries and authorities.

Total arrivals for the year are a 139 percent increase from the arrivals recorded in 2020, a sluggish year for Maldives tourism due to border-closure. However, 2021’s arrivals so far are a decrease of 27 percent in comparison to the arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019, a groundbreaking year for Maldives tourism.

On November 1, 4,686 visitors were welcomed at VIA. This is an increase of 15.6 percent in comparison to the number recorded on 1 November 2019 and a 193 percent increase from the less than 2,000 arrivals of 1 November 2020.

At a time the tourism minister had revealed that arrivals from India are expected to grow to top the markets by the end of the year, India remains top source market for Maldives tourism currently dominating 22.7 percent of total arrivals.

Russia follows closely at second contributing 18.6 percent of the arrivals. Third comes Germany contributing 6.9 percent.

Other top tourism markets so far in 2021 include U.S. contributing 4.1 percent of arrivals, Saudi Arabia with 3.3 percent, United Kingdom with 3.1 percent, Ukraine with three percent, Spain with three percent, France with two percent and Kazakhstan with 1.9 percent.

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

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

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.