Russia tops tourist arrivals in Maldives during the first half of May

South Palm Resort, Addu City | Photo: South Palm Resort Website

Malé, Maldives – The Maldives has welcomed 38,630 tourists into the country in the first 16 days of May 2021.

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives, a total of 428,400 tourists have arrived to the Maldives as of May 16, despite the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the surge in daily positive cases in Maldives.

While India was second in the tourist arrival market of Maldives pre-covid, India is currently maintaining its rank in second place in the year 2021 contributing to 20.8% of the arrival market. This is a downgrading from India’s position as first rank in April 2021. In addition to this, India also topped the tourist market for 2020 with a total of 62,960 tourist arrivals recorded from India throughout the year.

Russia comes in first with 22.8% arrivals, beating India. Other countries such as Ukraine, Germany, Kazakhstan, United States of America, United Kingdom, Romania, Czech Republic and France follow on the top ten arrivals list respectively.

While Maldives has welcomed 428,400 tourists so far in 2021, a total of 38,630 tourists arrived in the first 16 days of May. Maldives welcomed 92,103 tourists on January, 96,882 tourists on February, 109,585 tourists on March and 91,200 tourists on April of this year with the number increasing every month until on April, the Covid situation of Maldives worsened.

Maldives currently has 154 resorts/marinas, 10 hotels, 422 guesthouses, and 137 safari vessels in operation. The island destination is open to all tourists, provided they have proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken maximum 96 hours before departure from their original destination. Tourists are issued 30-day visa upon arrival.

With the increase in vaccinated people in Maldives, and people receiving the second dose of vaccine, the Ministry had foreseen a better future for the tourism sector of Maldives in 2021.