Malé, Maldives — Maldives got second place for the ‘Most Googled Destination’ for post-lockdown holidays.
With a global annual search volume of 1.79 million, Maldives came the most searched country, right after Italy, according to an analysis by Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA).
Although Italy has earlier this year been one of the epicentres of the pandemic in Europe, the country managed to come as first place with almost 1.94 million global searches. Mexico ranked third with a search volume of 1.72 million.
The top five countries were, Thailand and Spain. Canada, Greece, Turkey, Japan and Australia filled up the remaining spots, respectively, for the top 10 most searched countries.
Maldives reopened its borders to international passengers on July 15, after nearly four months since the state halted issuing on-arrival visas on March 27.
Although initially, borders were reopened for tourists without the need for mandatory quarantine periods or COVID-19 tests for visitors on arrival, the worsening of Covid-19 situation with 8,834 in the country has forced the government to make it mandatory for all tourists and short-term visitors to present a negative COVID-19 test on arrival from September 10 onwards.
