The tourist arrival figure recorded so far in the Maldives, is inching closer to 800,000.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest daily tourist arrival statistics publicized on Sunday.
As such, the ministry revealed that since the new year began, Maldives has welcomed a total of 794,109 visitors, which is almost 6,000 shy of 800,000.
During January the country welcomed 192,385 visitors, followed by 217,392 in February, 194,227 during March and 168,647 during April.
The ministry revealed that arrivals so far this year, are a 12.3 percent increase from the 707,306 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 600,657 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The daily average for 2024 so far, is 6,353 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.
Between May 1 – 4, a total of 21,458 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).
This, the ministry said is a 12.8 percent increase in comparison to the 19,021 arrivals recorded in the same period last year. However, it is less than the 23,853 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.
About 5,365 tourists are arriving on average every day during this month, and tourists are staying in the Maldives for seven days.
Looking at the daily arrivals for May:
- 6,424 tourists were welcomed on May 1
- 5,266 tourists were welcomed on May 2
- 4,923 tourists were welcomed on May 3
- 4,845 tourists were welcomed on May 4
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.
Further, statistics go on to reveal 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 11 percent of the market share with 87,168 arrivals by May 4.
Although the United Kingdom ranked second place for the past few weeks, it was recently replaced by the Russia once more. Russia now contributes 10.1 percent of the market share with 80,160 arrivals recorded so far.
Russia dominated the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023 as well.
UK currently ranks third place in the top 10 markets, contributing 9.7 percent of the market share with 76,823 arrivals.
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:
- Italy contributing nine percent with 71,536 arrivals
- Germany contributing 7.8 percent with 61,959 arrivals
- India contributing 5.5 percent with 43,991 arrivals
- France contributing 3.8 percent with 30,063 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.5 percent with 27,796 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing 2.5 percent with 20,078 arrivals
- Poland contributing 2.1 percent with 16,542 arrivals
Statistics go on to reveal that a total of 1,186 tourist facilities are currently open for services to tourists across the archipelago nation, including 176 resorts, 15 hotels, 848 guesthouses and 147 liveaboard vessels.
62,412 beds are operational across these facilities including 43,224 in resorts, 14,349 in guesthouses, 2,016 in hotels and 2,823 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.
