China emerges as second strongest tourism market to Maldives

China has emerged as the second-strongest tourism market for the Maldives, with over 154,000 year-to-date arrivals as of October 11.

According to the most recent statistics shared by the ministry of tourism, Russia continues to lead the top 10 markets with a total of 162,441 annual arrivals, while China is in the second spot with 154,927 arrivals.

India, which ranked second previously has slipped to the third spot with 154,016 annual arrivals.

Russian and Chinese tourist markets in the Maldives hold 11.5 percent and 11 percent market shares, respectively, while India contributes to 10.9 percent of the total arrivals.

The United Kingdom (UK) holds the fourth spot with 111,880 arrivals so far in 2023, while Germany comes in fifth with 96,791 annual arrivals.

The bottom five markets include Italy with 85,934 arrivals, followed by the USA with 55,363 arrivals, France with 38,139 arrivals, Spain with 29,992 arrivals, and Switzerland with 27,154 arrivals.

While the government aims to achieve an annual arrival target of 1.9 million tourists in 2023, the country has welcomed a total of 1,412,062 tourists as of October 11.

The Maldives' tourist arrival total is approximately 500,000 arrivals short of reaching the annual arrival target. The country is required to attract over 200,000 tourist arrivals in the next two months to achieve the annual arrival target.

The country has experience tourist arrivals above 120,000 per month for the first nine months in 2023, with positive growth reflected in each month except for May.

Additionally, the current tourist arrivals for October, as of the last review date, have experienced a 0.1 percent drop compared to the same period last year. In October 2022, the Maldives welcomed 51,079 tourists, whereas in the same period this year, tourist arrivals stood at 51,014.