The tourism ministry has announced that the tourist arrivals in August 2019 increased by 12.4 percent, compared to the same period of last year.

The ministry’s statistics show that 1,134,071 tourists arrived in the Maldives by August, which is a 16.6 percent increase compared to August 2018.

A total of 139,338 tourists arrived in August this year.

According to the ministry, the highest number of visitors were from China. While a total of 32,757 people visited from China, India is in second with 11,067 visitors.

11,449 tourists visited from Italy in August, while 7,242 were from Germany and 9,827 from the United Kingdom.

The millionth visitor of this year arrived on August 2; the country reached this milestone on September 9 last year.

The ministry aims to reach the 1.5 million tourist milestone by November 17.