Maldives expects to hit 500,000 tourist arrivals by December 25

Maldives expects to reach the annual tourist arrival target of 500,000 by December 25, says Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom.

Taking to Twitter, an ecstatic Mausoom noted that the country’s tourism is “bouncing back” and expressed gratitude to the determination and hard work towards tourism revival, as well as the patience shown by industry officials.

The minister’s Tweet reads that the tourist arrivals from some markets recorded during the past month broke the record of the same period in 2019.

As such, arrivals from Egypt increased by 40 percent during the past month, followed by arrivals from Kazakhstan which surged by 24.4 percent.

Other developments include five percent arrival increase from Russia as well as a 2.9 percent arrival increase from Brazil.

Minister Mausoom noted that arrivals from Ukraine during November 2020 also increased by 0.9 percent.

By December 16, Maldives is expected to reach the target of 100,000 tourists, as well as the annual target of 500,000 by December 25, Mausoom said.

Maldives halted issuing on-arrival visas amid Covid-19 fears, on March 27 and a little over three months later, reopened borders on July 15, after which progressive growth in tourist arrivals has been observed each month.

As such, the ministry has recorded a total of 79،627 tourist arrivals by December 2, this is a great surge in comparison to the less than 2,000 arrivals during the border reopening month.

The total number of tourist arrivals to date, sits at 462،474 and although the government aimed to break last year’s groundbreaking record of 1.7 tourist arrivals by setting a two million arrival vision, it was hindered by the ongoing pandemic.