Maldives has welcomed its one millionth tourist of the ongoing year.

The government reached the one-million arrivals milestone for the promising year on Friday, with the arrival of France national Vincent Victor Corentin Pitau, via an emirates flight. This is also Pitau’s 20th visit to the Maldives.

A very surprised and ecstatic Pitau said that he is looking forward to come back to the Maldives in February 2022 and that “for us, Maldives is the best destination”.

With this, Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrivals target for 2021, at 1.3 million arrivals.

The Ministry of Tourism, through its latest weekly statistics revealed that Maldives observed a total of 121,334 arrivals between October 1 – 27.

As Maldives has crossed the one-million arrivals goal on Friday, the total tourist arrivals figure from January 1 to October 27 sits at 992,196.

Total arrivals for the year are a 136.2 percent increase from the arrivals recorded in 2020, a sluggish year for Maldives tourism due to border-closure. However, 2021’s arrivals so far are a decrease of 27.9 percent in comparison to the over one million arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019, a groundbreaking year for Maldives tourism.

Of the total arrivals figure recorded so far this year, 92,103 tourist arrivals were recorded during January and 96,882 visitors were welcomed during February. Arrivals in March were at 109,585. In April Maldives welcomed 91,200 arrivals, followed by 64,613 visitors in May.

The number dropped to 56,166 during the month that followed, which the ministry believed to be linked to the restrictions and precautionary measures implemented in the face of a worsening Covid-19 situation as a fourth and more infectious wave was confirmed in early May. July saw 101,818 visitors welcomed into the Maldives.

Maldives broke its monthly tourist arrivals records with figures topping 143,599 in August. In September, Maldives welcomed 114,896 tourists, making it the second highest figure recorded so far in 2021.