Monthly tourist arrivals have surpassed 100,000 for the first month of the new year.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest weekly tourist arrival statistics publicized last week.
As such, statistics show that between January 1 – 16, a total of 101,626 tourist arrivals have been recorded.
Since the new year began, the arrival figure has seen an increase of 9.5 percent from the 92,848 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 76,155 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The daily average for 2024 so far, is 5,978 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.
Looking at the daily arrivals for January:
- 5,209 tourists were welcomed on January 1
- 6,640 tourists were welcomed on January 2
- 5,592 tourists were welcomed on January 3
- 5,108 tourists were welcomed on January 4
- 4,993 tourists were welcomed on January 5
- 6,265 tourists were welcomed on January 6
- 6,206 tourists were welcomed on January 7
- 5,265 tourists were welcomed on January 8
- 5,705 tourists were welcomed on January 9
- 5,846 tourists were welcomed on January 10
- 6,309 tourists were welcomed on January 11
- 6,138 tourists were welcomed on January 12
- 7,703 tourists were welcomed on January 13
- 6,984 tourists were welcomed on January 14
- 5,962 tourists were welcomed on January 15
- 6,152 tourists were welcomed on January 16
The highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a daily basis so far this year, was on January 13, when more than 7,700 tourist arrivals were recorded.
The new year began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation. However, it was recently replaced by Russia, contributing 12.2 percent of the market share with 12,373 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 11.2 percent of the market share with 11,404 arrivals recorded so far.
Although India was among the top three source markets, it was replaced by the United Kingdom within the last few days. UK contributes 8.1 percent of the market share, with 8,261 arrivals.
Other top tourist markets so far in 2023 are:
- India contributing eight percent with 8,110 arrivals
- Germany contributing 6.2 percent with 6,350 arrivals
- China contributing 6.3 percent with 6,436 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.8 percent with 3,822 arrivals
- France contributing 3.4 percent with 3,410 arrivals
- Poland contributing 2.5 percent with 2,525 arrivals
- Kazakhstan contributing 2.3 percent with 2,303 arrivals
Although Romania was among the top source markets, it was recently replaced by Poland.
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.
