Maldives welcomed over 90,000 visitors during the first month of the year.

According to the statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism, a total of 92,103 tourists arrived in the archipelago nation in January, a slight decrease from the 96,255 visitors recorded in December 2020.

The highest number of arrivals for January was recorded on the last day of the month; a total of 4,218 visitors. The daily average for the month was 2,971.

The top source market for the January was Russia with 20,973 visitors recorded. This is followed by India with 19,135 visitors. Ukraine is in third position with 7,210 visitors with Kazakhstan at number four with 4,434 arrivals. Romania is in the fifth spot with 3,921 arrivals. Other top source markets include the France (3,728 arrivals), Germany (3,390 arrivals), United Kingdom (2,504 arrivals), United States (1,960 arrivals) and Switzerland (1,958 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 in 2020 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 555,494 visitors in 2020, a drastic decline from the previous year’s record breaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals.

While over 92,000 arrivals were recorded in January, Tourism Minister Dr. Abdulla Mausoom last Saturday said that the country had not met its target for tourist arrivals during the first month of 2021. However, he projected a good outlook for the tourism industry in the upcoming months as countries begin process of administering Covid-19 vaccines to citizens.

Maldives hopes to welcome 1.5 million visitors this year.