Over 50,000 tourists welcomed within a week

More than 50,000 tourists have arrived in the Maldives within a week.

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

Since the new year began, a total of 50,983 tourist arrivals have been recorded.

The arrival figure for 2024 is an increase of 6.4 percent from the 47,931 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 43,079 arrivals recorded in 2022.

The daily average for 2024 so far, is 5,665 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.

The new year began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation. However, it was recently replaced by Russia, contributing 14.9 percent of the market share with 7,601 arrivals.

Russia continued to dominate the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023 as well.

Italy has toppled to second spot and now contributes 14.1 percent of the market share with 7,204 arrivals recorded so far.

Neighboring India trails close at third with 3,791 arrivals making up 7.4 percent of the market share.

Although Japan was among the top source markets at the beginning of the year, it was recently replaced by Saudi Arabia.

Statistics go on to reveal that a total of 1,147 tourist facilities are currently open for services to tourists across the archipelago nation, including 176 resorts, 15 hotels, 810 guesthouses and 146 liveaboard vessels.

61,750 beds are operational across these facilities including 43,279 in resorts, 13,681 in guesthouses, 2,016 in hotels and 2,774 in liveaboard vessels.

The first tourist visitor of the new year was welcomed during a special ceremony held at Velana International Airport (VIA) in the early hours of January 1. A Benjamin Duncan Moore, the first tourist of 2024 hails from the United Kingdom and arrived in the island nation on an Emirates flight.

Welcoming the first tourist of 2024 to the Maldives, Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Faisal noted that this is a fantastic start to what promises to be another successful year for the Maldives’ tourism industry.

He expressed keen interest in diversifying and exploring additional markets to reach this year’s arrival target.

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.