Over 360,000 tourist arrivals recorded so far in 2021

A total of 360,598 tourist arrivals have been recorded thus far in 2021.

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism, 62,028 visitors were welcomed at the Velana International Airport between April 1 – April 19.

This month’s arrivals so far are 38.9 percent less than the amount of tourist arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019 where 101,511 tourist arrivals were recorded.

Tourism Ministry also shared that an average of 3,308 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day based on their statistics.

While visitors are staying for an average of eight days, the number of tourist arrivals recorded from January 1 – April 19 last year was slightly higher. As such, it was 38.3 percent more with 382,762 visitors having been recorded within the period.

Maldives celebrated over 100,000 tourist arrivals during March, the highest monthly arrivals recorded since borders were reopened for international travel. As such, 109,585 tourist visited Maldives during March. During January 2021, Maldives welcomed 92,103. The number escalated to 96,882 in the month that followed.

The highest arrivals this past week was recorded on April 2 at 5,052 visitors. The lowest arrivals were recorded at 1,970 on April 13. Statistics go on to reveal that Maldives welcomed 3,924 tourists on Sunday and 2,110 on Monday.

India contributes 22.7 percent of the arrival rate by April 19, which is a step up after having been ranked second before the Covid-19 pandemic began sweeping across the globe. India is followed by Russia making up 21.3 percent by Monday and third comes Ukraine, which jumped from the 23rd rank according to pre-Covid stats and currently contributes 5.6 percent of tourist arrivals.

Germany, Kazakhstan, United States, United Kingdom, Romania, Czech Republic and France are also considered some of the biggest tourist markets for the Maldives.

The ministry boasts increasing tourist arrivals, which were snail-paced into the beginning of the country’s tourism-revival journey. As such, an optimistic tourism ministry revealed that the source markets are recovering, with “impressive” results.

The country saw a record-breaking 1,702,887 tourist arrivals during 2019 and an optimistic government set a vision to break the record with two million arrivals in 2020, which was foiled by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, due to which authorities halted issuing on-arrival visas on March 27 that year.

Nearly four months later, Maldives tourism began reviving and from July 15, arrivals have been increasing steadily over the past couple of months. Maldives was able to exceed its new target of 545,000, by the end of December 2020 and aims to welcome 1.5 million tourist arrivals this ongoing year.

Maldives will mark 50 years since the tourism industry’s inception, in 2022, which is to be celebrated as the golden year of tourism in Maldives.