Maldives is ready to celebrate 100,000 tourist arrivals since border reopening, on Saturday.
This was revealed by the Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom via Twitter, where he stated that Saturday marks a “historical day” for the country’s tourism sector and that the country is expecting to celebrate the arrival of the 100,000th tourist, since the country reopened borders for tourists. An ecstatic minister noted that this is a milestone reached in the sector.
Up until Wednesday, the country recorded 94,543 tourist arrivals from the date of border reopening.
With 20,264 arrivals, Russia remains the top source market contributing 21.4 percent of the arrivals and is followed by India with 13,801 tourist arrivals, this is 14.6 percent of the total arrivals.
Coming at third, 8,200 arrivals were recorded from the United Kingdom, whereas 6,001 arrivals were reported from the United States of America
Other top source markets include United Arab Emirates, Germany, Ukraine, France, Spain and Brazil.
Statistics publicized by the ministry go on to highlight that a total of 477,390 tourist arrivals have been recorded thus far this year, from January 1 to December 9.
Up until borders were closed, Maldives recorded 382,760 arrivals and after borders were reopened, 1,701 arrivals were recorded during July. The arrival rate began increasing gradually over the course of the past few months, with 7,628 arrivals being recorded in August, 9,538 tourists having arrived during September, 21,515 in October and 35,759 during November.
So far in December, 18,402 tourist arrivals have been recorded.
A total of 18 international airlines are operating flights to Maldives currently, with the greatest number of flight movement being recorded from Emirates at 316. Emirates has carried 29,175 to Maldives since border reopening, up until December 7.
Emirates is followed by Qatar Airways, which carried 23,515 and Aeroflot follows at its tail with 14,037 passengers.
Other airlines operating flights to Maldives are:
- Indigo with 144 flights and 8,522 passengers
- Go Air with 122 flights and 7,365 passengers
- Turkish Airlines with 164 flights and 7,141 passengers
- Sri Lankan Airlines with 194 flights and 3,108 passengers
- Lufthansa with 24 flights and 3,288 passengers
- Flydubai with 50 flights and 2,142 passengers
- Etihad Airways with 124 flights and 2,040 passengers
- British Airways with 26 flights and 1,964 passengers
- Air India with 30 flights and 1,554 passengers
- Edelweiss with 20 flights and 1,337 passengers
- Azur Air Russia with six flights and 983 passengers
- Spice Jet with 26 flights and 284 passengers
- Air Astana with two flights and 156 passengers
- Silk Air with four flights and 88 passengers
- Air Seychelles with two flights and 30 passengers.
In addition to international airlines, the country’s national airline, Maldivian has also operated 246 flights, carrying 3,803 passengers. Flyme operations are also in effect, having carried 34 passengers on eight flights thus far.
Some of the airlines that are scheduled to begin operations to the island nation soon include Alitalia, Air France, Ukraine International Airlines, NEOS SPA, Gulf Air, Rossiya Airline, Nordwind and Austrian Airlines.
Statistics go on to reveal that a total of 135 resorts are currently under operation with 31,104 beds. 148 hotels and guesthouses are also being operated, with 3,302 beds in operation. Safari vessels currently under operation are 124.
This makes up a total of 36,750 operational beds and 407 tourist establishments under operation.
Minister Mausoom earlier revealed that although the country had aimed to break last year's groundbreaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals this year by setting a two million arrival target, the Covid-19 pandemic had obstructed the vision in light of which a new target at 500,000 arrivals was set for this year. As such, Dr. Mausoom noted that the country will reach the target by December 25.
Recently, the ministry announced that guesthouses and tourist hotels in the greater Malé region have been given the green light to open for services from December 14. Establishments in the area that wish to obtain special permit is required to submit the application form if they meet the requirements set forth in the ‘Public Health Interventions to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19 in the tourism sector V4’ and meet other terms and conditions specified by the ministry as well as the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
