Male’, Maldives – Ministry of Tourism on Friday, has revealed that 20,612 tourists arrived in Maldives during the first week of 2021.
According to statistics publicised by the ministry, a daily average of over 2,000 arrivals were recorded throughout the week, with the highest number of daily arrivals hitting 4,195. Russia marks the largest source market for the first week of 2021, with a total of 5,331 tourists, consisting of 25.9 percent of all arrivals.
Neighbouring India, which attributed to the largest portion of visitors to Maldives last year, secured second place on the list with a total of 1,816 tourist arrivals. Ukraine and Kazakhstan grabbed the third and fourth rankings on the list respectively, with the numbers of visitors from both countries seeing an influx, following Maldives’ border reopening in mid 2020.
Currently, 565 tourist facilities across the island nation is catering to tourists, including 141 resorts, 11 hotels, 131 liveaboards and 282 guesthouses. The Maldivian government reopened its borders on July 15 with just four airlines, following a period of international travel restrictions spanning nearly four months.
Six months after the border reopening, the situation in travel has almost reverted back to what it was before the border closure. At the moment, Maldives is recording a daily average of 3,000 to 5,000 tourist arrivals, a notable figure considering the trenches that the industry fell into mid-2020.
Despite the entire industry screeching to a halt due to preventive measures taken to curb the spread of the virus, Maldives hit its target for 500,000 tourists in 2020, with an impressive recovery curve.
With renewed hope, the government expects to attract over 1.5 million tourists in 2021. Minister of Tourism Dr Abdulla Mausoom, on several occasions, stated that this year would be a “very successful” year for Maldivian tourism.
