According to local news Mihaaru, as of Tuesday, the number of foreign nationals arriving at Velana International Airport within a period of 24 hours, has begun averaging 4000 tourists per day.
A 15 percent increase in flights headed for Maldives has led to a rise of 32 percent in tourist arrivals.
Mihaaru disclosed that, unnamed sources within the industry say that current figures indicate a recovery curve close to pre-COVID19 arrival rates.
The Ministry of Tourism stated that the number of tourist arrivals to Maldives in December 2019 was 171,348 which would suggest an average between 5000 - 6000 tourists per day at the least. Daily figures for arrivals in December 2019 are not available.
Maldives hit the 4000 mark for arrivals on Saturday with 4100 tourists.
Even busier days lie ahead, deduced Mihaaru’s industry source.
Guesthouses in the Male region, which completely opened up on Monday, report being fully booked from present-day onwards till the end of January.
Based on the projection that Maldives is on the road to reaching the 0.5 million mark next week, for tourism arrivals across the year 2020, Mihaaru News speculated that numbers are set to return to its usual record-breaking pace, in the near future.
It should be noted that in 2019, Maldives welcomed 1.7 million tourists. The island nation hit the 1 million target for the first time in 2013 with 1.2 million tourist arrivals.
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