Maldives has welcomed more than 650,000 tourists so far this year.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest daily tourist arrival statistics publicized on Wednesday.

The ministry revealed that since the new year began, Maldives has welcomed a total of 650,404 visitors.

During January the country welcomed 192,385 visitors, followed by 217,392 in February and 194,227 during March.

The ministry revealed that arrivals so far this year, are a 13.6 percent increase from the 572,748 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 469,816 arrivals recorded in 2022.

The daily average for 2024 so far, is 6,570 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.

Between April 1 – 8, a total of 46,400 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).

This, the ministry said is five percent drop in comparison to the 48,820 arrivals recorded in the same period last year. However, it is slightly higher than the 38,292 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.

About 5,800 tourists are arriving on average every day during this month, and tourists are staying in the Maldives for eight days.

The highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a daily basis so far this year, was on February 10, when more than 10,000 tourist arrivals were recorded.

Statistics go on to 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 10.9 percent of the market share with 71,136 arrivals by April 8.

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 10.1 percent of the market share with 65,898 arrivals.

Although Italy ranked third for the past few months, it was recently replaced by the United Kingdom. UK now contributes 10.1 percent of the market share with 65,731 arrivals recorded so far.

Although India was among the top three source markets into the beginning of the year, it was replaced by China.

Statistics go on to reveal that a total of 1,180 tourist facilities are currently open for services to tourists across the archipelago nation, including 175 resorts, 15 hotels, 843 guesthouses and 147 liveaboard vessels.

62,206 beds are operational across these facilities including 43,192 in resorts, 14,163 in guesthouses, 2,016 in hotels and 2,835 in liveaboard vessels.

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. Maldives welcomed 1.8 million tourists in 2023 and aspires to welcome two million tourists this year.

Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972. It has been 52 years since zealous travelers have been visiting the Maldives which has been drawing in visitors with its picturesque beauty for years.