The tourist arrivals recorded by December 27, has topped 1,842,169.

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

Since the new year began, a total of 1,842,169 tourist arrivals have been 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, 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 arrival figure for 2023 is an increase of 12.3 percent from the 1,641,120 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 1,294,492 arrivals recorded in 2021.

Further, a total of 158,322 tourists were welcomed between December 1 – 26.

So far in December, the arrival figure is a 5.6 percent surge compared to the 149,868 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and the 136,839 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.

The daily average for 2023 is 5,515 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 December 21. 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.

The highest number of daily arrivals so far this month, was recorded on December 23 with over 8,000 visitors.

As the year inches closer to an 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 11.2 percent of the market share with 206,026 arrivals by December 26.

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 204,043 arrivals which makes up 11.1 percent of the arrivals.

China comes third contributing 10.1 percent with 185,976 arrivals.

Although South Korea was included among the top source markets earlier, it has been replaced by Switzerland once more.

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.