Maldives has recorded over 100,000 tourist arrivals within the first 35 days of 2021.

As per the tourism ministry’s statistics, a total of 102,107 visitors were recorded from the 1st of January to 4th February 2021. This is a 47.3 percent decrease from the same period last year, which was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Out of the 102,107 arrivals recorded by Thursday, 10,004 were from 1-4 February with a daily average of 2,501 visitors.

The top source market for tourist arrivals was Russia with 22,178 arrivals, followed by India with 20,027 tourist arrivals. Ukraine stood third with 7,373 tourist arrivals. Other top source markets include Kazakhstan (4,684 arrivals), Romania (4,456 arrivals), France (3,782 arrivals), Germany (3,603 arrivals), United Kingdom (2,576 arrivals), Czech Republic (2,129 arrivals) and United States (2,055 arrivals).

By the 4th of February, a total of 145 resorts and 333 guesthouses were in operation in the Maldives, as well as 11 hotels and 135 safari vessels, bringing total number of operational beds to 43,656.

27 airlines are currently operating flights to the Maldives.

Noting that January arrivals were lower than projected, Tourism Minister Dr. Abdulla Mausoom said that they expect it to improve in the coming months as countries administer Covid-19 vaccines to citizens.

Less than 0.09 percent of the tourists that visited the Maldives in January and December tested positive for Covid-19.

The Ministry of Tourism announced this via Twitter on Friday, expressing pride in being “one of the safest destinations of the world, especially with ongoing vaccination of tourism sector employees”.

As per the ministry’s statistics, 0.08 percent of the 92,103 visitors recorded last month tested positive for the infection while out of the 96,412 tourists recorded in December, only 0.07 percent tested positive.

Maldives borders were closed for nearly four months from March 27 last year following the coronavirus pandemic. While borders were reopened on July 15, 0.06 percent of the arrivals recorded that month had tested positive for Covid-19.

The tourist Covid-19 positivity rate saw an increase in the coming months, reaching 0.36 percent in September. However, it has been on the decline since with 0.01 percent increase seen from December to January.

Earlier this week, the ministry launched an initiative to vaccinate tourism sector employees. The first batch will see 10,000 tourism sector frontline employees receive the vaccine.

Due to the standstill on the tourism sector, the country recorded 555,494 tourist arrivals in 2020, a drastic decline from 2019's 1.7 million visitors. The country aims to welcome 1.5 million visitors this year.