More than 115,000 arrivals recorded from China so far

More than 115,000 tourists have arrived in the Maldives from China.

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

As such, China sits at the top of the list of tourist source markets, contributing 11.7 percent of the market share with 115,815 arrivals by June 25.

The new year began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation, however it was replaced by Russia for a few weeks.

Although the United Kingdom ranked second place for a while, it was replaced by Russia once more.

Russia now contributes 10.3 percent of the market share with 102,317 arrivals recorded so far.

Russia dominated the tourist arrival markets of the Maldives by the end of 2023.

UK currently ranks third place in the top 10 markets, contributing 9.2 percent of the market share with 91,71 arrivals.

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

Further, statistics go on to reveal that Maldives has welcomed a total of 993,328 visitors since 2024 began.

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

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 – 25, 101,083 tourists were welcomed at Velana International Airport (VIA).

Arrivals so far this year, are a 9.8 percent increase from the 904,983 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 794,853 arrivals recorded in 2022.

The daily average for 2024 so far, is 5,612 and tourists are staying for an average of eight days.

The arrivals for the sixth month of the year, are a 5.6 percent surge in comparison to the 95,739 arrivals recorded in the same period last year as well as the 92,519 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.

About 4,043 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.

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.