Russia market toppled, UK tops Maldives tourism markets

Although Russia maintained its position as the top source market for Maldives tourism over the past few months, the country’s market has toppled and been replaced with the United Kingdom.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its most recent daily statistics, publicized on April 6.

As such, the daily figures revealed that as of April 5, UK contributes the greatest number of arrivals to the Maldives so far, contributing 12.7 percent of the total arrival count between January 1 – April 5.

Second comes Russia, contributing 11.6 percent. India ranks third contributing 10.9 percent.

Although Ukraine was included among the top 10 markets for Maldives tourism earlier, it has since been replaced by Austria. Arrivals from Ukraine have been plummeting due to the ongoing conflict.  

Before coronavirus began sweeping across the globe, the top 10 markets for Maldives tourism in 2019 were China, India, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, France, United States, Japan and Australia.

The statistics go on to reveal that the country saw 456,992 arrivals between January 1 – April 5, of which 131,764 tourists were welcomed during January and 149,008 arrivals were recorded in February, followed by 150,739 arrivals in March.

25,481 arrivals were recorded between April 1 – 5. This figure is an increase of 8.9 percent compared to the figure recorded in the same period of 2019.  It is also a 24.1 percent increase from the arrivals recorded in 2021.

In addition to this, the total arrival figure so far this year is a 43.2 percent increase in comparison to the arrivals recorded in 2021. It his however, a 9.8 percent decrease from the arrivals recorded in the same period of 2019.

The statistics go on to indicate that tourists are staying in the Maldives for an average of eight days this promising year, with daily arrivals being maintained at an average of 4,810.

During 2020, Maldives recorded 555,494 tourist arrivals, which was a drastic plunge from the previous year’s 1,702,887 arrivals. Maldives met its tourist arrival target for 2021 in late December and welcomed a total of 1,321,932 tourists by the end of the year.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in his presidential address on February 3, revealed that Maldives aims to welcome 1.6 million tourists this year.

It has been 50 years since zealous travelers have been visiting the Maldives which has been drawing in visitors with its picturesque beauty for years. Maldives marks 50 years since the tourism industry’s inception, in 2022, dubbed the golden year of tourism in Maldives.

Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom earlier revealed that Maldives aims to win the World Leading Destination Award during the golden jubilee year as well and expressed hope to reach newer heights in the tourism success story with the inception of the Homestay tourism.

Maldives also won the Most Preferred Tourist Destination 2021 at the Global MICE Congress and Awards 2022 held in March. At the awards, Maldives one the award of the Most Preferred Tourist Destination 2021 and Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) won the award for the “Best Marketing Initiative of the year”.