More than 64,000 tourist arrivals have been recorded within the first two weeks of May.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest weekly tourist arrival statistics publicized on Thursday.
As such, the ministry revealed that between May 1 – 15, a total of 64,538 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).
This, the ministry said is a 2.7 percent increase in comparison to the 62,816 arrivals recorded in the same period last year. However, it is less than the 66,938 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.
About 4,646 tourists are arriving on average every day during this month, and tourists are staying in the Maldives for seven days.
Since the new year began, Maldives has welcomed a total of 837,189 visitors.
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 11.5 percent increase from the 751,101 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 643,742 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The daily average for 2024 so far, is 6,156 and tourists are staying for an average of eight 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
- 4,501 tourists were welcomed on May 5
- 4,252 tourists were welcomed on May 6
- 3,862 tourists were welcomed on May 7
- 4,176 tourists were welcomed on May 8
- 3,745 tourists were welcomed on May 9
- 3,976 tourists were welcomed on May 10
- 4,102 tourists were welcomed on May 11
- 4,139 tourists were welcomed on May 12
- 3,803 tourists were welcomed on May 13
- 3,063 tourists were welcomed on May 14
- 3,461 tourists were welcomed on May 15
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 11.1 percent of the market share with 93,329 arrivals by May 15.
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 84,559 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 9.6 percent of the market share with 79,969 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 8.8 percent with 73,390 arrivals
- Germany contributing 7.9 percent with 65,792 arrivals
- India contributing 5.7 percent with 47,649 arrivals
- France contributing 3.7 percent with 31,359 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.5 percent with 29,429 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing 2.5 percent with 20,954 arrivals
- Poland contributing two percent with 16,930 arrivals
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.
