Maldives surpassed its tourist arrival target for 2020, with 555,213 visitors.

The country’s target for the year was 545,000, which was reduced from the initial two million target made for 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A record breaking 1.7 million tourists visited the Maldives in 2019.

While a total of 555,213 visitors were welcomed in 2020, this includes 382,760 arrivals prior to border closure and 172,366 arrivals after reopening. 87 foreigners were allowed into the country under special permission during border closure period.

Over half of the arrivals after border reopening was recorded in December; a total of 96,225 arrivals were recorded the past month with a daily average of 3,104.

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 with 21,515 in October and 35,759 in November.

Further, 1,916 tourists arrived in the Maldives on the first day of 2021.

As per the markets, looking at the total arrivals after border reopening, Russia remains the top with 31,800 arrivals from July 15 to December 30. This is followed by India with 27,667 tourists. The United Kingdom is in third position with 19,686 while the United States is at number four with 8,306 arrivals. Other top source markets after the border reopening by the end of 2020 include Germany, France, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Spain.

While the tourism industry is the Maldives’ most lucrative industry, it was forced into a nearly four-month standstill following the ongoing pandemic as the country closed borders on March 27 as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.