Maldives saw a 3.7 percent progression of the country’s tourism industry within the first quarter of 2021.

The Ministry of Tourism publicized its latest statistics on Monday, revealing that 396,982 visitors had been welcome at the Velana International Airport between January 1 – May 2. During the same period last year Maldives welcomed 382,775 visitors, whereas 655,916 tourist arrivals were recorded the same period in 2019.

Despite a 3.7 percent increase in tourist arrivals in comparison to 2020, this is 39.5 percent lower than the arrivals recorded in 2019.

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.

Maldives has welcomed 7,212 tourists so far in May, with 3,815 arrivals recorded on Saturday and 3,397 on Sunday.

According to statistics, visitors are staying for an average of nine days and an average of 3,254 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day.

Currently, India contributes 22.4 percent of the arrival rate 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 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 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.