Maldives has recorded more than 200,000 tourist arrivals from neighboring India so far in 2022.
Latest weekly statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism on Thursday, reveal that India remains the top source market for the archipelago nation’s tourism as the year draws closer to ending.
As such, India is the top tourist market for Maldives, contributing 14 percent of the total arrival figure as of November 23 with a total of 203,812 arrivals recorded.
Second comes Russia, contributing 12.3 percent with 178,934 arrivals.
Coming in third is the United Kingdom contributing 10.9 percent with 158,855 arrivals.
Other top tourism markets so far in 2022 are:
- Germany contributing 8.2 percent with 119,865 arrivals
- Italy contributing 5.5 percent with 80,294 arrivals
- United States contributing 4.8 percent with 69,971 arrivals
- France contributing 2.8 percent with 41,386 arrivals
- Spain contributing 2.6 percent with 37,550 arrivals
- South Korea contributing 2.1 percent with 31,140 arrivals
- Switzerland contributing 2.1 percent with 30,859 arrivals
The statistics reveal that arrivals from the South Korean market have been increasing over recent days.
Further, the ministry’s figures go on to reveal that Maldives has welcomed a total of 1,456,170 tourists between January 1 – November 23. This is an increase of 29.8 percent from 2021 but a 2.8 percent decline from 2019.
The total arrival figure so far this year, includes 131,764 tourists welcomed during January, 149,008 tourist arrivals during February, 150,739 tourists welcomed during March and 145,280 tourists welcomed during April. 125,522 tourists were welcomed during May followed by 110,889 tourists in June and 133,561 tourists welcomed during July. In August, Maldives welcomed 131,862 tourists, followed by 111,986 in September.
In October, the archipelago nation observed 153,737 arrivals.
So far in November Maldives has welcomed 111,813 tourists, which is 7.5 percent higher than the figure recorded in the same period of 2019 and 2.3 percent more than the same period of 2021.
The highest tourist arrivals figure during the month was recorded on November 12, when more than 5,600 visitors were welcomed.
The daily average for the ongoing month remains at 4,861 and tourists are staying in the Maldives for an average of eight days.
Looking at the daily arrivals for November:
- 5,134 tourists were welcomed on November 1
- 5,337 tourists were welcomed on November 2
- 4,685 tourists were welcomed on November 3
- 4,624 tourists were welcomed on November 4
- 5,335 tourists were welcomed on November 5
- 5,090 tourists were welcomed on November 6
- 4,132 tourists were welcomed on November 7
- 4,887 tourists were welcomed on November 8
- 4,463 tourists were welcomed on November 9
- 4,811 tourists were welcomed on November 10
- 4,030 tourists were welcomed on November 11
- 5,662 tourists were welcomed on November 12
- 5,245 tourists were welcomed on November 13
- 4,599 tourists were welcomed on November 14
- 5,127 tourists were welcomed on November 15
- 4,389 tourists were welcomed on November 16
- 5,215 tourists were welcomed on November 17
- 4,358 tourists were welcomed on November 18
- 5,629 tourists were welcomed on November 19
- 5,622 tourists were welcomed on November 20
- 4,259 tourists were welcomed on November 21
- 4,819 tourists were welcomed on November 22
This means that Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for the promising year. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in his presidential address on February 3, revealed that Maldives aims to welcome 1.6 million tourists this year. Maldives welcomed its one millionth tourist of the year on August 13.
2020 was a sluggish year for Maldives tourism due to the numerous safety precautions implemented in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside border closure. Tourist arrivals began to bounce back with the easing of travel restrictions as well as safety measures against Covid-19 in 2021.
During 2020, Maldives recorded 555,494 tourist arrivals, which was a drastic plunge from the previous year’s 1,702,887 arrivals. Maldives met its tourist arrival target for 2021 in late December and welcomed a total of 1,321,932 tourists by the end of the year.
It has been 50 years since zealous travelers have been visiting the Maldives which has been drawing in visitors with its picturesque beauty for years.
Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972.
