Maldives recorded over 50,000 visitors within the first 17 days of the year.

Statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism show that a total of 50,611 tourists arrived in the island nation from 1-17 January, with a daily average of 2,977 visitors.

The highest daily arrivals were recorded on January 3, which was 4,195 visitors, while the previous day saw a total of 4,160 visitors. The lowest number was recorded on January 13, at 1,925 arrivals.

The country welcomed 177,140 visitors in January last year.

The top source market for the period was Russia with 12,029 visitors recorded between 1-17 January, which is 23.8 percent of the total arrivals.

This is followed by India with 8,042 tourists. Ukraine is in third position with 4,292 with Kazakhstan at number four with 2,318 arrivals. Romania is in the fifth spot with 2,030 arrivals. Other top source markets include the France (1,745 arrivals), United Kingdom (1,718 arrivals), Germany (1,488 arrivals), United States (1,075 arrivals) and Switzerland (865 arrivals).

After taking over Italy as the top source market for tourism last year, Russia lost the spot towards the end of 2020 to India.

Maldives’ tourism industry took a toll last year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. With borders closed for nearly four months from 27th March 2020 to 15th July 2020, the country welcomed a total of 555,399 visitors in 2020, a drastic decline from the previous year’s record breaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals.

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. A total of 96,225 arrivals were recorded in December alone.

Authorities aim to welcome 1.5 million tourists in 2021.