Maldives tourist arrivals so far in 2021 top 383,630

By Wednesday, Maldives tourist arrivals so far in 2021 was recorded at 383,630.

The Ministry of Tourism publicized its latest statistics on Thursday, revealing that 383,630 visitors had been welcome at the Velana International Airport between January 1 – April 28.

Of this, 85,060 visitors have been welcomed so far this ongoing month, which is 44.5 percent less than the number recorded the same period in 2019, where 153,297 tourist arrivals were recorded.

Owing to the closing down of borders on 27 March 2020, the number of tourist arrivals recorded from January 1 – April 28 last year was slightly lower. As such, 382,762 visitors were recorded within the period.

According to statistics, visitors are staying for an average of nine days and an average of 3,251 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day.

Maldives celebrated over 100,000 tourist arrivals during March, the highest monthly arrivals recorded since borders were reopened for international travel on 15 July 2020. As such, 109,585 tourist visited Maldives during March. During January 2021, Maldives welcomed 92,103 visitors. The number escalated to 96,882 in February 2021.

The highest arrivals this ongoing month was recorded on April 2 at 5,052 visitors. The lowest arrivals were recorded at 1,629 on April 27. On Sunday Maldives recorded 3,727 arrivals and 2,279 on Monday.

India contributes 22.6 percent of the arrival rate with 86,127 arrivals from India by Wednesday, 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 21.9 percent with 83,443 arrivals by Wednesday and third comes Ukraine, which jumped from the 23rd rank according to pre-Covid stats and currently contributes 5.4 percent of tourist arrivals. 20,626 tourist arrivals were recorded from Ukraine by Wednesday.

Germany, Kazakhstan, United States, Romania, United Kingdom, 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 ministry earlier revealed that tourists who have completed 14 days after receiving their final Covid-19 vaccination shot will be allowed to enter Maldives without a negative PCR test, from 20 April. However, tourists from India are exempt from this due to the spiraling infections being reported in the neighboring country.

By Wednesday, Emirates remains the top airline to fly passengers to the Maldives of the over 30 international airlines currently operating flights to the island nation. As such, Emirates has carried 75,004 passengers to the Maldives thus far, followed closely by Qatar Airways having carried 54,737 passengers. Indigo comes third with 50,895 passengers.

Currently, Aeroflot, Go Air, Turkish Airlines, Flydubai, Lufthansa, Azur Air Russia and Etihad Airways remain some of the top 10 airlines flying tourists to the archipelago nation.

Maldives aims to welcome 1.5 million tourist arrivals this ongoing year and is gearing up to mark 50 years since the tourism industry’s inception, in 2022, which is to be celebrated as the golden year of tourism in Maldives.