China continues to top the Maldives’ tourist arrival markets, into the third month of the new year.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest weekly tourist arrival statistics publicized on Thursday.
As such, statistics indicate that while the new year began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation it was replaced by Russia for a few weeks and China currently sits at the top of the list, contributing 12 percent of the market share with 58,912 arrivals by March 13.
Russia dominated the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023 and currently ranks second place in the top 10 markets, contributing 10 percent of the market share with 49,042 arrivals.
Italy has toppled to third spot and now contributes 9.6 percent of the market share with 46,870 arrivals recorded so far.
Although India was among the top three source markets into the beginning of the year, it was replaced by China.
Other top tourist markets so far in 2024 are:
- United Kingdom contributing 9.1 percent with 44,613 arrivals
- Germany contributing 6.8 percent with 33,077 arrivals
- India contributing 6.2 percent with 30,097 arrivals
- France contributing 4.1 percent with 19,999 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.3 percent with 16,032 arrivals
- Poland contributing 2.5 percent with 11,993 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing 2.3 percent with 11,265 arrivals
Although Kazakhstan was among the top source markets, it has been replaced by Switzerland.
The ministry further revealed that since the new year began, 488,952 tourist arrivals have been recorded.
The arrival figure for this year has seen an increase of 14 percent from the 428,828 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 345,742 arrivals recorded in 2022.
During January the country welcomed 192,385 visitors, followed by 217,392 arrivals in February.
Between March 1 – 13, a total of 79,175 tourists touched down at Velana International Airport (VIA).
The daily average for 2024 so far is 6,698 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.
The arrival figure for March is a one-percent increase from the 78,414 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 64,966 arrivals recorded in 2022.
Looking at the daily arrivals for March:
- 6,366 tourists were welcomed on March 1
- 7,718 tourists were welcomed on March 2
- 7,141 tourists were welcomed on March 3
- 6,093 tourists were welcomed on March 4
- 6,033 tourists were welcomed on March 5
- 5,666 tourists were welcomed on March 6
- 5,355 tourists were welcomed on March 7
- 5,224 tourists were welcomed on March 8
- 6,900 tourists were welcomed on March 9
- 6,855 tourists were welcomed on March 10
- 5,288 tourists were welcomed on March 11
- 5,585 tourists were welcomed on March 12
- 4,951 tourists were welcomed on March 13
The highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a daily basis so far this year, was in February 10, when more than 10,000 tourist arrivals were recorded.
The first tourist visitor of the new year was welcomed during a special ceremony held at VIA in the early hours of January 1. 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.
