Male’, Maldives – Maldives has recorded over 12,500 tourist arrivals from the neighboring country India within the first 20 days of December.
The General Manager of Terminal Operations at Velana International Airport (VIA), Ibrahim Hussain spoke at a program and informed that approximately five to six flights operating to Maldives on a daily basis has brought a total of 12,616 tourists from India within only the first 20 days of December.
Along with the tourists that arrived in December, the country has welcomed over 22,000 Indian tourists since the border of Maldives reopened on July 15. Overall, Maldives has welcomed a total of 44,268 Indian travelers this year making upto 9.6 percent of all arrivals to the country.
Maldives has always been famous around the neighboring country India, the country has recently been visited by several Bollywood celebrities including Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Hina Khan and Neha Dhupia.
Manager Hussain further informed that as of December 20, India is the third-biggest market for tourist arrivals to the Maldives in 2020 right after United Kindom and Russia.
At present, there are a total of six direct flights from India to the Velana International Airport of Maldives. They are:
- From Thiruvananthapuram on Air India – 1 weekly flight (Wednesdays)
- From Kochi on IndiGo – 3 weekly flights (Thursdays and Sundays)
- From Mumbai on IndiGo – 4 weekly flights (Thursdays and Sundays)
- From Mumbai on GoAir – 3 weekly flights (Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturday and Sundays)
- From Delhi on GoAir – 3 weekly flights (Wednesdays and Sundays)
- From Bangalore on GoAir – 2 weekly flights (Wednesdays, Thursday, Saturday and Sundays)
While India is the second worst Covid-19 affected country in the world after USA, the country has recorded over 10.1 Million Covid-19 cases. This is why, to minimize the risk of possible infection in Maldives, the island nation requires all tourists to have a negative PCR test not exceeding 96 hours to enter Maldives.
