China has risen to the top of the list of countries from which Maldives' sees tourist arrivals.
As per the statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism, Maldives has welcomed 23,900 tourists from China between the start of January to yesterday.
This amounts to 11 percent of the total number of tourist arrivals.
At the end of 2023, China was third on the list of countries from which Maldives receives the highest number of tourist arrivals. However, they have previously been at the top of the list before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tourism Ministry has previously announced that discussions are being held with a view towards introducing more direct flights from China. Even at present, Beijing Capital Airlines, China Eastern and Sichuan Airlines are conducting direct flights between the countries.
Russia, second on the list, is the origin of 22,000 tourist arrivals. The number of arrivals from Italy is at 21,000. UK is fourth on the list, recording 18,000 tourist arrivals to the Maldives in the same period.
India, which was at the top of the list at the end of 2023, is now at the fifth position. A total of 16,000 arrivals were recorded from India since the start of January.
So far this year, the number of tourist arrivals recorded is 214,000. This is 13 percent higher than the number during the same time window last year. On average, 6,200 tourists arrive in the country per day. However, January saw four days with an average of 7,300 arrivals.
The State Budget sets the target for 2024 as 2 million tourists. The Tourism Ministry, however, aims for 2.3 million arrivals.
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