Tourist arrival figure sees 34 percent increase from 2021 by Wednesday

The country’s tourist arrivals figure has seen a surge of 34.1 percent by Wednesday, compared to the same period last year.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its latest weekly statistics.

The latest statistics revealed that that a total of 1,279,231 tourists were welcomed between January 1 – October 19.

Figures reveal that this is an increase of 34.1 percent from 2021 and a 4.3 percent decline from 2019.

This means that Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for the promising year. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in his presidential address on February 3, revealed that Maldives aims to welcome 1.6 million tourists this year. Maldives welcomed its one millionth tourist of the year on August 13.

The total arrival figure so far this year, includes 131,764 tourists welcomed during January, 149,008 tourist arrivals during February, 150,739 tourists welcomed during March and 145,280 tourists welcomed during April. 125,522 tourists were welcomed during May followed by 110,889 tourists in June and 133,561 tourists welcomed during July. In August, Maldives welcomed 131,863 tourists, followed by 114,984 in September.

Between October 1 – 19 Maldives has welcomed 88,611 which is an increase of 6.9 percent from the previous year and a 3.7 percent increase from 2019’s figure in the same period.

Daily arrivals this ongoing month is much higher than that of September’s.

Figures reveal that India remains the top source market for the archipelago nation’s tourism.

Even though Russia had maintained its position as the top source market for Maldives tourism in the past, India has once again become the top tourist market for Maldives, contributing 14.1 percent of the total arrival figure as of October 19 with 180,255 arrivals recorded from the neighboring country.

Second comes Russia, contributing 12.2 percent with 155,490 arrivals.

Coming in third is the United Kingdom contributing 10.9 percent with 139,788 arrivals.

2020 was a sluggish year for Maldives tourism due to the numerous safety precautions implemented in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside border closure. Tourist arrivals began to bounce back with the easing of travel restrictions as well as safety measures against Covid-19 in 2021.

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.

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.

Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972.