A total of 158,450 tourist arrivals were recorded for the month of November, by Thursday.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its latest weekly statistics, publicized on Thursday.
The tourism ministry revealed that between November 1 – 29, a total of 158,450 tourists touched down in the Maldives.
November’s arrival figure so far is a 11.5 percent surge compared to the 142,130 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and the 140,087 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.
Further, statistics revealed that since the beginning of the year, a total of 1,678,639 tourist arrivals have been recorded.
The arrival figure for 2023 is an increase of 12.9 percent from the 1,486,496 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 1,153,015 arrivals recorded in 2021.
This means that with about 221,361 more visitors, the country will reach its arrival target set for this year. Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for 2023 and is expected to record 1.9 million tourist arrivals by year-end. It was earlier estimated that 1.81 million tourist arrivals would be recorded.
The total arrival figure so far this year, includes 172,499 tourists 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, 130,967 during September and 159,141 during October. Although the figures dropped in May and June, they were still higher than 100,000 arrivals.
The daily average for 2023 is 5,041 and tourists stay 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 November:
- 5,143 tourists were welcomed on November 1
- 5,474 tourists were welcomed on November 2
- 4,572 tourists were welcomed on November 3
- 6,165 tourists were welcomed on November 4
- 5,634 tourists were welcomed on November 5
- 4,516 tourists were welcomed on November 6
- 5,166 tourists were welcomed on November 7
- 4,338 tourists were welcomed on November 8
- 4,753 tourists were welcomed on November 9
- 5,462 tourists were welcomed on November 10
- 6,478 tourists were welcomed on November 11
- 6,061 tourists were welcomed on November 12
- 5,125 tourists were welcomed on November 13
- 5,808 tourists were welcomed on November 14
- 5,498 tourists were welcomed on November 15
- 5,543 tourists were welcomed on November 16
- 5,600 tourists were welcomed on November 17
- 6,554 tourists were welcomed on November 18
- 6,888 tourists were welcomed on November 19
- 5,565 tourists were welcomed on November 20
- 5,478 tourists were welcomed on November 21
- 4,816 tourists were welcomed on November 22
- 5,503 tourists were welcomed on November 23
- 5,380 tourists were welcomed on November 24
- 6,236 tourists were welcomed on November 25
- 5,782 tourists were welcomed on November 26
- 5,186 tourists were welcomed on November 27
- 4,863 tourists were welcomed on November 28
Daily figures reveal that Russia continues to top the tourist arrival markets contributing 11.4 percent of the market share with 191,280 arrivals by November 29.
Although India topped the tourist markets for Maldives halfway through the year, it was replaced by Russia recently. 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.
India has climbed to the second spot once again, replacing China with 182,659 arrivals which makes up 10.9 percent of the arrivals.
China comes third contributing 10.4 percent with 175,257 arrivals.
Other top tourist markets so far in 2023 are:
- United Kingdom contributing 8.2 percent with 137,887 arrivals
- Germany contributing 7.3 percent with 122,262 arrivals
- Italy contributing 5.9 percent with 98,856 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.9 percent with 66,240 arrivals
- France contributing 2.6 percent with 43,862 arrivals
- Spain contributing 2.1 percent with 35,917 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing two percent with 33,610 arrivals
In his last presidential address this year, former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that the Maldives will be welcoming 3.5 million tourists annually, by 2028.
Earlier, the previous administration’s Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom expressed optimism that the target of 1.9 million tourist arrivals set for the concluding year would be achieved.
Highlighting that it was earlier estimated that 14 million bed nights would be observed in 2023 based on the current predictions, ex-minister Mausoom noted that although this figure is 1.7 million more than the previous year, they remain hopeful to achieve the target.
Further, the calculations of the previous administration’s Ministry of Finance for tourism this year have also been optimistic.
As such, tourism growth is expected to surge in 2023, pre-pandemic levels surpassed and arrivals as well as bed nights are projected to surge in all three scenarios.
The former administration 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.
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.
