Maldives has seen over 90,000 tourist arrivals since borders were reopened on July 15.
The country’s borders were closed on March 27 following the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of the efforts to control the spread of the virus.
According tostatisticspublished by the Ministry of Tourism, a total of 94,543 tourists arrived in the island nation from July 15 to December 9. The country passed the 90,000 mark on Monday.
477,390 tourists have visited the country this year, meaning 382,847 arrivals were recorded prior to border closure on March 27.
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.
According to the ministry’s statistics, arrivals in November exceeded the previous month by thousands; 35,759 tourist arrivals were recorded in November with a daily average of 1,190 arrivals.
18,402 arrivals have already been recorded in December, while the highest number of tourist arrivals since border reopening was seen on December 6; a total of 3,006 arrivals.
While Italy had been the top source market for tourism throughout the year, Russia took over the top spot with the start of December. Statistics show that there have not been much arrivals from the former, since borders were reopened.
Russia is also the leading source market since border reopening, with 20,264 arrivals recorded by December 9. This contributes to 21.4 percent of the total arrivals since borders were reopened.
India remains in second with 13,801 arrivals (14.6 percent) since border reopening while the third-leading source market is still the United Kingdom with 8,200 arrivals (8.7 percent).
Other top performing tourist markets since border reopening (July 15 - December 9):
- United States: 6,001 arrivals (6.3 percent)
- United Arab Emirates: 5,117 arrivals (5.4 percent)
- Germany: 4,588 arrivals (4.9 percent)
- Ukraine: 3,345 arrivals (3.5 percent)
- France: 2,527 arrivals (2.7 percent)
- Spain: 2,494 arrivals (2.6 percent)
- Brazil: 2,377 arrivals (2.5 percent)
While 477,390 tourists have visited the Maldives this year, Tourism Minister Dr. Abdulla Mausoom recently announced that the country will be able to meet its target of 500,000 tourist arrivals by December 25.
Maldives welcomed a record breaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals in 2019, and a two million target was made for 2020. This all changed following the Covid-19 pandemic, which has taken a toll on the country’s tourism industry and in turn economy.
