China continues to lead as top tourist source market into February

China has remained the leader in tourist arrivals to the Maldives with no signs of slowing down, dominating the top source markets for the second consecutive month of the year.

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

As such, the ministry’s statistics revealed that although Russia topped the tourist source markets into the third week of January, it was replaced by China into the last week of January.

China has topped the leading source of tourists since then. The ministry’s figures revealed that as 2025 commenced Russia topped the tourist source markets, however, it has since been replaced by China, contributing 17 percent of the market share with 50,330 arrivals.

China sat at the top of the list of tourist source markets by the end of 2024 as well. 2024 began with Italy topping the tourist arrival markets of the island nation; however, it was replaced by Russia for a few weeks and then by China for the remainder of the year.

Although Italy ranked second place for a few weeks since the new year began, Russia now sits at second place on the list. Russia ranks second place contributing 9.6 percent of the market share with 28,465 arrivals recorded by Monday.

Italy comes third contributing 9.2 percent of the market share with 27,162 arrivals.

Although Austria topped the tourist source markets by the end of January, it has since been replaced by Switzerland on the list of top 10 markets.

Further, the ministry revealed that between February 1 – 10, 80,899 visitors were recorded, marking a 4.8 percent surge from the 77,203 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2024. It is a lot higher than the 59,027 arrivals recorded in 2023.

According to the ministry, 214,863 tourist arrivals were recorded between January 1 – 31.

This was an 11.7 percent surge in comparison to the 192,385 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and much higher than the 172,499 arrivals recorded in the same period of 2023.

About 6,931 tourists arrived on average every day during January and 8,090 tourists are arriving on average every day during February.

In total, 295,762 tourists have arrived in the Maldives so far this year. This is a 9.7 percent surge in comparison to the 269,588 arrivals recorded in 2024 and much higher than the 231,526 arrivals recorded in 2023.

The ministry’s latest figures go on to reveal that 205,172 out of the 295,762 visitors that were recorded by Monday stayed at resorts. This makes up 69.4 percent. 75,706 tourists make up 25.6 percent of the tourists who stayed at guesthouses, 7,792 tourists make up 2.6 percent of the tourists who stayed at hotels, 6,946 tourists make up 2.3 percent of the tourists who stayed at liveaboard vessels and 147 who stayed at other facilities during this period.

Presently, 1,134 tourist accommodation establishments are operational across the Maldives, including 172 resorts, 15 hotels, 793 guesthouses and 154 liveaboard vessels. 60,995 beds are operational across these facilities including 42,454 in resorts, 2,032 in hotels, 13,381 in guesthouses and 3,128 in safari vessels. Maldives has a total capacity of 1,139 tourist facilities including 177 resorts, 15 hotels, 793 guesthouses and 154 liveaboard vessels. This means that seven resorts remain inoperative. Guesthouses are operational across 116 islands of 20 atolls, resorts are operational across 172 islands of 19 atolls and hotels are operational across nine islands of eight atolls.

Maldives welcomed 2,046,615 visitors in 2024. In 2023, 1,878,543 tourist arrivals were recorded.

A true jewel of the Indian Ocean, Maldives has been dazzling among passionate travelers since tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972. It is going to be 53 years since the island paradise has been enchanting travelers from around the globe with its unrivaled hospitality and picturesque beauty.