Over 60,000 tourists have arrived in the Maldives since borders were reopened after a nearly four-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the Ministry of Tourism’s latest statistics, a total of 62,501 tourists arrived in the island nation from July 15 to November 21.
A total of 444,348 tourists have visited the country this year.
While there were 1,701 arrivals during the first 15 days after border reopening, August saw 7,628 arrivals. 9,538 tourists visited the island nation in September and 21,515 in October.
Most tourist arrivals since border reopening were recorded on November 15. While 2,101 arrivals were seen that day, arrivals have already exceeded the previous month; 22,119 tourist arrivals were recorded by November 21.
Italy is currently the top source market for tourism for the whole year, with 45,378 arrivals.
While second is Russia with 37,484 arrivals, this includes the 12,961 arrivals since border reopening; Russia has been the top source market for tourism since border reopening and the 21,961 arrivals constitutes to 20.7 percent of tourist arrivals since border reopening.
Other source markets:
- India: 5,449 arrivals (8.7 percent)
- United Kingdom: 4,745 (7.6 percent)
- United States: 4,396 (seven percent)
- United Arab Emirates: 4,051 (6.5 percent)
- Germany: 3,104 (five percent)
- Ukraine: 2,236 (3.6 percent)
- France: 1,905 (three percent)
- Spain: 1,896 (three percent)
- Brazil: 1,721 (2.8 percent)
Maldives’ borders were closed for nearly four months on March 27, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They were reopened on July 15, during the third phase of lockdown easing, given the negative impacts on the country’s economy due to the standstill on the tourism industry.
Experts predict arrivals to spike in the coming weeks, for peak season. By the end of November, a total of 18 airlines would have restarted operations to the Maldives.
