As we have moved into the eleventh month of the year, China continues to lead the Maldives’ top source markets for tourists, maintaining its position as the top tourist market as 2024 nears ending.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism through its latest daily tourist arrival statistics publicized on Monday.
The ministry’s statistics reveal that China remains the top source for tourist arrivals, proving a growing demand for travel to the island nation in the eastern Asian country.
China sits at the top of the list of tourist source markets, contributing 14.3 percent of the market share with 240,401 arrivals by November 3.
The 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 11.1 percent of the market share with 187,270 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 8.5 percent of the market share with 143,909 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:
- Germany contributing 7.6 percent with 127,446 arrivals
- Italy contributing 6.9 percent with 115,425 arrivals
- India contributing 6.1 percent with 101,963 arrivals
- United States contributing 3.3 percent with 55,976 arrivals
- France contributing 2.7 percent with 44,879 arrivals
- Spain contributing 2.4 percent with 39,568 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing two percent with 32,903 arrivals
Statistics go on to show that between January 1 – November 3, Maldives welcomed 1,683,150 tourists.
Arrivals so far this year, are a 9.6 percent increase from the 1,535,378 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 1,359,522 arrivals recorded in 2022.
The daily average for 2024 so far, is 5,465 and tourists are staying for an average of 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.
Maldives welcomed 1.8 million tourists in 2023 and aspires to welcome two million tourists this year.
Tourist arrivals for this year include:
- 192,385 visitors welcomed during January
- 217,392 visitors welcomed during February
- 194,227 visitors welcomed during March
- 168,366 visitors welcomed during April
- 119,875 visitors welcomed during May
- 123,284 visitors welcomed during June
- 167,528 visitors welcomed during July
- 176,175 visitors welcomed during August
- 132,795 visitors welcomed during September
- 172,619 visitors welcomed during October
Further, between November 1 – 3, a total of 18,504 visitors touched down at Velana International Airport (VIA).
The arrival figure for November is a 21.8 percent increase in comparison to the 15,189 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and a lot more than the 15,156 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2022.
About 6,168 tourists are arriving on average every day during November and tourists are staying for eight days.
Looking at the daily arrivals for November:
- 5,215 tourists were welcomed on November 1
- 6,461 tourists were welcomed on November 2
- 6,828 tourists were welcomed on November 3
Welcoming the first tourist of 2024 to the Maldives back in January, Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Faisal noted that it was 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 the one millionth tourist of the year, six months in, on June 27.
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.
