More than 35,000 tourist arrivals have been recorded so far in December.

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

The tourism ministry revealed that between December 1 – 6, a total of 34,919 tourists touched down in the Maldives.

So far in December, the arrival figure is a 5.7 percent surge compared to the 33,023 arrivals recorded in the same period last year and the 31,132 tourists welcomed during the same period in 2021.

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 1,718,766 tourist arrivals have been recorded.

The arrival figure for 2023 is an increase of 12.8 percent from the 1,524,275 arrivals recorded in the same period last year, and a significant growth from the 1,188,785 arrivals recorded in 2021.

This means that with about 181,234 more visitors, the country will reach its arrival target set for this year. Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrival target for 2023 and 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.

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, 130,967 during September, 159,141 during October and 163,658 during November. Although the figures dropped in May and June, they were still higher than 100,000 arrivals.

The daily average for 2023 is 5,146 and tourists stay for an average of seven days.

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

Weekly figures reveal that Russia continues to top the tourist arrival markets contributing 11.3 percent of the market share with 194,602 arrivals by December 6.

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 188,446 arrivals which makes up 11 percent of the arrivals.

China comes third contributing 10.4 percent with 178,010 arrivals.

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

Earlier, the previous administration’s 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, ex-minister Mausoom noted that although this figure is 1.7 million more than the previous year, they remain hopeful to achieve the target.

Further, the calculations of the previous administration’s 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 former administration 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.