The tourist arrivals recorded by October 11, has topped 1,412,062.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest weekly tourist arrival statistics publicized on Saturday.
As such, the ministry revealed that since the new year began, a total of 1,412,062 tourists have touched down in the archipelago nation.
Monthly figures show that 172,499 tourists were welcomed during January, 177,915 in February, 173,514 in March, 164,357 in April, 120,959 in May, 120,363 during June, 145,629 in July, 154,854 in August and 130,967 during September. Although the figures dropped in May and June, they were still higher than 100,000 arrivals.
Statistics go on to reveal that between October 1 – 11, Maldives recorded 51,014 tourist arrivals.
This year’s arrival figure is an increase of 13.7 percent from the 1,241,708 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 915,305 arrivals recorded in 2021.
The daily average for 2023 is at 4,972 and tourists are staying in the Maldives for an average of seven days.
The ministry’s statistics indicate that the arrival figure for the ongoing month is a 0.1 percent drop compared to the 51,079 arrivals recorded in the same period last year. However, it is higher than the 44,443 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.
The daily average for October is 4,638 and tourists are staying for an average of seven days.
Maldives hit its one millionth tourist arrival of the ongoing year on July 16.
Looking at the daily arrivals for the ongoing month according to the most recent daily statistics publicized by the ministry:
- 6,399 tourists were welcomed on October 1
- 4,926 tourists were welcomed on October 2
- 4,508 tourists were welcomed on October 3
- 4,512 tourists were welcomed on October 4
- 4,489 tourists were welcomed on October 5
- 4,424 tourists were welcomed on October 6
- 4,432 tourists were welcomed on October 7
- 5,325 tourists were welcomed on October 8
- 4,257 tourists were welcomed on October 9
- 7,742 tourists were welcomed on October 10
Statistics go on to reveal that although India topped the tourist markets for Maldives halfway through the year, it has since been replaced by Russia once more. 2022 ended with the neighboring country as the top source market for Maldives tourism.
The neighboring country overtook Russia throughout June, which was the frontrunner among the tourism markets with the highest number of tourist arrivals into the first few months of the year.
Russia contributes 11.5 percent of the market share with 162,441 arrivals recorded from the country as of October 11, while China has climbed to the second spot replacing India, with 154,927 arrivals, which makes up 11 percent of the arrivals.
India has toppled to third contributing 10.9 percent with 154,016 arrivals.
Other top tourist markets so far in 2023 are:
- United Kingdom contributing 7.9 percent with 111,880 arrivals
- Germany contributing 6.9 percent with 96,791 arrivals
- Italy contributing 6.1 percent with 85,934 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.9 percent with 55,363 arrivals
- France contributing 2.7 percent with 38,139 arrivals
- Spain contributing 2.1 percent with 29,992 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing 1.9 percent with 27,154 arrivals
Maldives is expected to record 1.9 million tourist arrivals by year-end.
The government launched its fifth tourism master plan which places high priority in achieving the target noted including increasing bed nights. The tourism master plan carries the purpose of developing the tourism sector and increasing services provided to tourists by the country.
The government also plans to expand tourism across the scatter of islands comprising the Maldives.
In his presidential address this year, President Solih stated that the Maldives will be welcoming 3.5 million tourists annually, by 2028.
Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972. 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.
