Tourist arrival figure inches closer to one million, China still top source market
Russia dominated the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023
Tourists at Velana International Airport (VIA)
The tourist arrival figure recorded so far this year is inching closer to a million.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest daily tourist arrival statistics publicized on Wednesday.
The ministry revealed that since 2024 began, Maldives has welcomed a total of 932,398 visitors.
During January the country welcomed 192,385 visitors, followed by 217,392 in February, 194,227 during March, 168,366 during April and 119,875 in May.
Between June 1 – 10, 40,153 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).
Maldives welcomed 1.8 million tourists in 2023 and aspires to welcome two million tourists this year.
Arrivals so far this year, are a 9.6 percent increase from the 850,794 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 743,240 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The daily average for 2024 so far, is 5,720 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.
The arrivals for the sixth month of the year, are a 3.4 percent decline in comparison to the 41,550 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and much less than the 40,906 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.
About 3,650 tourists are arriving on average every day during this month, and tourists are staying in the Maldives for seven 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.
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 11.5 percent of the market share with 107,363 arrivals by June 11.
Although the United Kingdom ranked second place for the past few weeks, it was recently replaced by Russia once more. Russia now contributes 10.2 percent of the market share with 95,551 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 9.4 percent of the market share with 87,876 arrivals.
Although India was among the top three source markets into the beginning of the year, it was replaced by China.
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 52 years since zealous travelers have been visiting the Maldives which has been drawing in visitors with its picturesque beauty for years.
