Maldives records over 200,000 arrivals from India so far in 2022

Maldives has recorded more than 200,000 tourist arrivals from neighboring India so far in 2022.

Latest weekly statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism on Thursday, reveal that India remains the top source market for the archipelago nation’s tourism as the year draws closer to ending.

As such, India is the top tourist market for Maldives, contributing 14 percent of the total arrival figure as of November 23 with a total of 203,812 arrivals recorded.

Second comes Russia, contributing 12.3 percent with 178,934 arrivals.

Coming in third is the United Kingdom contributing 10.9 percent with 158,855 arrivals.

The statistics reveal that arrivals from the South Korean market have been increasing over recent days.

Further, the ministry’s figures go on to reveal that Maldives has welcomed a total of 1,456,170 tourists between January 1 – November 23. This is an increase of 29.8 percent from 2021 but a 2.8 percent decline from 2019.

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.

In October, the archipelago nation observed 153,737 arrivals.

So far in November Maldives has welcomed 111,813 tourists, which is 7.5 percent higher than the figure recorded in the same period of 2019 and 2.3 percent more than the same period of 2021.

The highest tourist arrivals figure during the month was recorded on November 12, when more than 5,600 visitors were welcomed.

The daily average for the ongoing month remains at 4,861 and tourists are staying in the Maldives for an average of eight days.

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.

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.