Maldives welcomed 91,200 tourists in April

Maldives recorded a total of 91,200 tourist arrivals during April.

The Ministry of Tourism publicized its latest statistics on Saturday, revealing that 389,770 visitors had been welcome at the Velana International Airport between January 1 – April 30.

Of this, 92,103 tourist arrivals were recorded during January and 96,882 visitors were welcomed during February. Tourist arrivals escalated to 109,585 in the month that followed, making it the highest number of tourist arrivals recorded on a monthly basis since borders were reopened for international travel on 15 July 2020, after nearly four months since the government halted issuing on-arrival visas on 27 March 2020.

The highest arrivals during April were 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 followed by 2,279 on Monday. 1,629 on Tuesday, 2,367 on Wednesday, 2,571 on Thursday and 3,413 on Friday.

April’s tourist arrivals are 44.1 percent less than the 163,114 arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019.

According to statistics, visitors are staying for an average of nine days and an average of 3,248 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day.

Currently, India contributes 22.2 percent of the arrival rate with 86,127 arrivals by April 27, 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 22.2 percent and third comes Ukraine, which jumped from the 23rd rank according to pre-Covid stats and currently contributes 5.5 percent of tourist arrivals.

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 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.

Further, a total of 724 tourist facilities have opened doors to tourists since borders were reopened, of which 154 are resorts, 422 are guesthouses, 11 are hotels and 137 are liveaboard vessels.

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.

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.