Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for the concluding year, as the country records 1,505,366 arrivals so far.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Tourism in its latest daily statistics, publicized on Sunday.

As such, statistics revealed that since the new year began, a total of 1,505,366 tourists have touched down in the archipelago nation which is an increase of 13.4 percent from the 1,327,962 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 996,877 arrivals recorded in 2021.

The total arrival figure so far this year, includes 172,499 tourists welcomed during January, 177,915 in February, 173,514 in March, 164,357 in April, 120,959 in May, 120,363 during June, 145,629 in July, 154,854 in August and 130,967 during September. Although the figures dropped in May and June, they were still higher than 100,000 arrivals.

Between October 1 – 28, Maldives has welcomed 144,318 tourists.

So far in October, the arrival figure is a 5.1 percent surge compared to the 137,333 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and the 126,015 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.

The daily average for 2023 is 5,001, for October it is 5,154 and tourists stay for an average of seven days.

Maldives hit its one millionth tourist arrival of the ongoing year on July 16.

This means that Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for the promising year. Maldives is expected to record 1.9 million tourist arrivals by year-end. It was earlier estimated that 1.81 million tourist arrivals would be recorded.

In his presidential address this year, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that the Maldives will be welcoming 3.5 million tourists annually, by 2028.

Daily figures reveal that Russia continues to top the tourist arrival markets contributing 11.5 percent of the market share with 172,472 arrivals by October 28.

Although India topped the tourist markets for Maldives halfway through the year, it was replaced by Russia recently. 2022 ended with the neighboring country as the top source market for Maldives tourism.

The neighboring country overtook Russia throughout June, which was the frontrunner among the tourism markets with the highest number of tourist arrivals into the first few months of the year.

India has climbed to the second spot once again, replacing China with 163,513 arrivals which makes up 10.9 percent of the arrivals.

China comes third contributing 10.8 percent with 163,036 arrivals.

Earlier, Minister of Tourism Dr. Abdulla Mausoom expressed optimism that the target of 1.9 million tourist arrivals set for the concluding year would be achieved.

Highlighting that it was earlier estimated that 14 million bed nights would be observed in 2023 based on the current predictions, Minister Mausoom noted that although this figure is 1.7 million more than the previous year, they still remain hopeful to achieve the target.

Further, the calculations of the Ministry of Finance for tourism this year have also been optimistic.

As such, tourism growth is expected to surge in 2023, pre-pandemic levels surpassed and arrivals as well as bed nights are projected to surge in all three scenarios.

The government launched its fifth tourism master plan which places high priority in achieving the target noted including increasing bed nights. The tourism master plan carries the purpose of developing the tourism sector and increasing services provided to tourists by the country.

The government also plans to expand tourism across the scatter of islands comprising the Maldives.

Tourism was introduced in the Maldives in 1972. 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.