The number of tourist arrivals recorded so far in December 2023 is 6.6 percent more than the figure recorded in the same period last year.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its latest weekly statistics, publicized on Saturday.
A total of 137,491 tourists were welcomed between December 1 – 23.
So far in December, the arrival figure is a 6.6 percent surge compared to the 128,963 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and the 118,772 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.
Since the new year began, a total of 1,821,338 tourist arrivals have been.
The arrival figure for 2023 is an increase of 12.4 percent from the 1,620,215 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 1,276,425 arrivals recorded in 2021.
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, 159,141 during October and 163,658 during November. Although the figures dropped in May and June, they were still higher than 100,000 arrivals.
The daily average for 2023 is 5,453 and tourists stay for an average of seven days.
Maldives hit its one millionth tourist arrival of the ongoing year on July 16 and welcomed its 1.8 millionth tourist of the concluding year on Wednesday. Stefan Mathijs, the 1.8 millionth tourist of the year hails from Netherlands and arrived in the Maldives for holidays with his partner and two kids.
This was the initial tourist arrival target set by the previous government, for the concluding year.
Looking at the daily arrivals for December:
- 6,061 tourists were welcomed on December 1
- 6,770 tourists were welcomed on December 2
- 6,523 tourists were welcomed on December 3
- 5,184 tourists were welcomed on December 4
- 5,294 tourists were welcomed on December 5
- 5,087 tourists were welcomed on December 6
- 5,071 tourists were welcomed on December 7
- 5,202 tourists were welcomed on December 8
- 6,645 tourists were welcomed on December 9
- 6,359 tourists were welcomed on December 10
- 5,326 tourists were welcomed on December 11
- 5,337 tourists were welcomed on December 12
- 5,233 tourists were welcomed on December 13
- 5,770 tourists were welcomed on December 14
- 6,162 tourists were welcomed on December 15
- 7,140 tourists were welcomed on December 16
- 7,487 tourists were welcomed on December 17
- 5,674 tourists were welcomed on December 18
- 5,329 tourists were welcomed on December 19
- 4,967 tourists were welcomed on December 20
- 6,031 tourists were welcomed on December 21
- 6,785 tourists were welcomed on December 22
- 8,054 tourists were welcomed on December 23
The highest number of daily arrivals so far this month, was recorded December 23 with over 8,000 visitors recorded.
As the year inches closer to it's end, Russia continues to dominate the top tourist arrival markets of the island nation.
As such, daily figures reveal that Russia continues to top the tourist arrival markets contributing 11 percent of the market share with 200,894 arrivals by December 23.
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 200,744 arrivals which makes up 11 percent of the arrivals.
China comes third contributing 10.1 percent with 184,152 arrivals.
Other top tourist markets so far in 2023 are:
- United Kingdom contributing 8.2 percent with 149,115 arrivals
- Germany contributing 7.1 percent with 129,915 arrivals
- Italy contributing 5.9 percent with 106,910 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.9 percent with 71,621 arrivals
- France contributing 2.6 percent with 46,801 arrivals
- Spain contributing 2.2 percent with 39,186 arrivals
- South Korea contributing two percent with 35,606 arrivals
Although Switzerland was included among the top source markets earlier, it was recently replaced by South Korea.
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.
