Within the first three months of border reopening, Maldives has recorded over 27,000 tourist arrivals.

According to statistics publicized by the Maldives Immigration on Wednesday, the total number of visitors to have been recorded from July 15 – October 15 was at 27,217.

During October, tourist arrivals increased by 56 percent in comparison to the previous month, highlighted the department.

A total of 8,350 tourists arrived in the Maldives dated between October 1 – 15.

The highest number of arrivals within the first 15 days of October was recorded on October 11, at 1,025. This is followed by 1,021 arrivals on October 9.

On October 4, 1,019 tourist arrivals were recorded whereas 1,011 tourists arrived at Velana International Airport on October 2.

The lowest arrival rate was recorded at 114 within the 15 days, on October 7.

By the third month of border reopening, Russia remained the top source market for tourism, with 2,308 arrivals. Other source markets include the United States of America at 656 followed by the United Kingdom with 525 arrivals, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 444 arrivals and Germany with 443 tourists.

Further, 417 tourists arrived from India, 375 from France, 361 from Ukraine and 335 from Spain.

Visitors from Brazil during this period are at 267 followed by Egypt at 197.

Maldives responded to the escalating situation of Covid-19 by shutting down borders on March 27 following which the country’s tourism industry was at a complete standstill for over three months. The government reopened borders on July 15 under the third phase of the lockdown ease plan implemented on May 29.

Maldives has been implementing numerous measures against the virus, having implemented a full lockdown in the Greater Malé Region on April 15. Nearly four months later, authorities began easing the lockdown, proven to be an effective method to reduce the daily cases being reported. Once the government entered the third phase of lockdown easing, daily cases being reported began soaring and public health authorities were forced to re-introduce a curfew period effective from 10pm to 5am. As part of the efforts to further control the spread of the virus, authorities also implemented a restriction of vehicle movement from 8pm to 5am which has since been lifted. Recently, authorities shortened the curfew hours from 11pm to 4am, in light of the low number of cases being reported in the past few weeks.