Malé, Maldives – The Ministry of Tourism of Maldives has revealed that the island nation closes to 100,000 tourist arrivals so far in the year 2021 as the country welcomes 99,397 tourists.
The latest statistics published by the Tourism Ministry reveals that till 99,397 tourists had arrived to the country up until February 3, 2021 and out of which, 7,294 tourists arrived so far in February. Although the number is extremely low compared to the tourist arrivals during the same period in 2020, the country still celebrates this achievement that has been made in the midst of a pandemic.
In 2020, Maldives welcomed 173,874 tourists in the month of January itself and 15,444 tourists till February 3rd, taking the total tourist arrivals during the time period to 189,318. While the daily average of tourist arrivals last year was 2,923, it is currently at only 9.2.
While the statistics revealed that 99,397 tourists arrived to Maldives from January 1st till February 3rd of 2021, Russia still tops the Top 10 Tourist Markets 2021 list as the island nation has till date welcome 22,365 tourists from Russia.
Neighboring India, which attributed to the largest portion of visitors to Maldives last year, secured second place on the list with a total of 20,933 tourist arrivals. Ukraine and Kazakhstan grabbed the third and fourth rankings on the list respectively, followed by France, Romania, Germany, United Kingdom, Czech Republic and the United States.
The Tourism Ministry has targeted to welcome at least 1.5 million tourists this year, and so far the country has managed to welcome only 99,397 tourists.
Tourism Minister of Maldives, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom stated that although Maldives foresees to face more challenges in the future, the Tourism Ministry sees a lot of improvement and success in 2021 compared to the year before.
Minister Mausoom expressed hope and excitement towards the year 2021 and stated that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Maldives will be ready for 2021 with new facilities and developed areas and that “2021 is going to be a year of investment for the Maldives.”
As Maldives has started the vaccination program and has already vaccinated over 3,000 frontliners, high risk individuals and top official governments, Minister Mausoom informed that the incumbent government has kept 10,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine specifically for the resort workers as well which will be administered to 5,000 individuals.
While the vaccination program in Maldives began on February 1st, vaccination for resort workers began on 4 February 2021 in Maldives. Minister Mausoom expressed hope that with the vaccination program, Maldives will top the leader board of World’s safest destinations.
