Golden Jubilee year's tourist arrival figure so far exceeds that of past year's

The golden jubilee of tourism year’s tourist arrival figure so far this year, has exceeded the records of past year.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its latest weekly statistics, publicized on Thursday.

Statistics revealed that so far in the Golden Jubilee Year of tourism, Maldives has welcomed a total of 1,317,573 tourists which is an increase of 33.4 percent from 2021 but a 3.9 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 131,862 tourists, followed by 111,986 in September.

Between October 1 – 26 Maldives welcomed 126,953 tourists which is an increase of 8.4 percent from the previous year and a 6.3 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 26 with a total of 186,388 arrivals recorded from the neighboring country.

Second comes Russia, contributing 12.1 percent with 159,657 arrivals.

Coming in third is the United Kingdom contributing 11 percent with 144,566 arrivals.

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.