The Edition
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linkedin icon

Latest

Russia-Ukraine war has not impacted Maldives' tourist arrivals

Lamya Abdulla
20 March 2022, MVT 14:07
Tourists Arrivals
Lamya Abdulla
20 March 2022, MVT 14:07

Statistics released by the Tourism Ministry show that the Russia-Ukraine war did not impact tourist arrivals to Maldives as expected.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2021. Prior to the invasion, Russia had been Maldives’ top tourism market while Ukraine had been at seventh on the list of most number of arrivals to Maldives. The conflict between the two nations lead tourism experts in Maldives to estimate this would impact arrivals to Maldives, and subsequently, its economy.

However according to the weekly statistics released by tourism ministry, the total number of tourist arrivals to Maldives until March 17 was 359,272. This is a 48 percent increase compared to the same period of 2020. In 2021, total number of tourist arrivals to Maldives in that period was 241,407.

Statistics also show that tourist arrivals have been at an average the past couple of months as well.

Around 78,500 tourists have visited Maldives in the first two weeks of March this year. In January, 68,000 tourists visited in that period while 78,420 tourists visited in February.

Russia is still leading the nation with the most number of arrivals to Maldives at 49,364 visitors. UK is second with 40,672 while India is at number three with 36,349.

Even though the current conflict has not impacted Maldives’ tourism much yet, it is predicted that it will have significant impact.

Share this story

Related Stories

Discuss

MORE ON NEWS