Maldives sees over 60,000 tourist arrivals in Dec.; nearly twice as previous month

Over 60,000 tourists have visited the Maldives in December alone, nearly twice as many as the previous month.

As per the Ministry of Tourism’s statistics, out of the 139,183 arrivals recorded by December 22 since border reopening, a total of 63,042 arrivals were in December.

This is an increase of 27,283 compared to the 35,759 arrivals recorded in November.

The most single-day arrivals since border reopening was recorded on December 20, with 5,674 visitors, and a daily average of 2,866. The lowest arrivals recorded in December was on the second, 1,455 visitors.

Russia is still the top source market for tourism, for the whole year as well as since border reopening. While 46,065 of the total 522,030 arrivals of the year by December 22 are Russians, the country contributes 19 percent of the total tourist arrivals since border reopening with 26,484 visitors.

This is followed by India with 23,092 tourists from July 15 to December 22. The United Kingdom is in third position with 16,492 with the United States at number four with 7,610 arrivals. Germany is in the fifth spot with 6,620 arrivals. Other top source markets after the border reopening includes the United Arab Emirates, France, Ukraine, Spain and Brazil.

While arrivals were lower than expected initially after border reopening, a significant increase was seen each passing month; 1,701 arrivals were recorded during the first 15 days after border reopening while August saw 7,628 arrivals. 9,538 tourists visited the island nation in September and 21,515 in October.

The over 60,000 visitors recorded in December shows that things have picked up as the country entered what industry experts call "peak season”.

While Maldives saw a record breaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals in 2019, a two million target was made for 2020. However, this was reduced to 500,00 following impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country passed this milestone on December 17, while the 100,000th visitor milestone since border reopening was reached on December 12. Both achievements were reached ahead of projections.