Maldives draws 64,613 tourists in May

„„ Over 450,000 tourists have arrived in first 5 months „„ Maldives aims to welcome 1.5 m tourist arrivals this ongoing year „„ Declares 2022 as ‘Golden Year of Tourism’ to mark 50-year anniversary of industry

The Maldives has recorded a total of 64,613 tourist arrivals during May 2021, bringing the first five months’ haul to an impressive 454,383, according to data published by the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

Of this, 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.

The highest arrivals during May were recorded on 1 May at 3,815 visitors. The lowest arrivals were recorded at 1,195 on 31 May.

May’s tourist arrivals are 37.3% less than the 103,022 arrivals recorded during the same period in 2019.

According to statistics, visitors are staying for an average of nine days and an average of 3,009 tourists were visiting the Maldives every day.

With arrivals from India, the top source market recorded by the Maldives since border reopening, declining due to the worsening COVID

19 situation in the country, Russia currently dominates the arrival market contributing 23.3%.

Russia was ranked sixth before the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping across the globe and is followed closely by India making up 19.7%. Third comes Germany contributing 5.5% of tourist arrivals.

Ukraine (5%), Kazakhstan (3.7%), United States (3.5%), United Kingdom (2.9%), Romania (2.5%), France (2.2%) and Czech Republic

(2.2%) are also considered some of the biggest tourist markets for the Maldives.

Further, a total of 728 tourist facilities have opened doors to tourists since borders were reopened, of which 154 are resorts, 425 are

guesthouses, 10 are hotels and 139 are liveaboard vessels.

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.

The 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 the Maldives.

(Source: https://raajje.mv/101064)