Mausoom: tourist arrivals to hit millionth mark by Friday

Tourism minister Dr. Abdullah Mausoom has announced that the estimated number of inbound tourists to the Maldives will reach one million by Friday.

He stated that this would be a huge win for the tourism sector of the Maldives and that if tourists are traveling to the Maldives at the rate at which they are now, an estimate of 1.6 million tourists would have arrived by the end of the year.

"We hope that the number of tourist arrivals will increase further. But it is also a cause for celebration to have had this many arrivals so far.''

Dr. Mausoom said that if tourist arrivals had not decreased due to the Russia-Ukraine, tourist arrivals would be higher this year compared to 2019.

Tourist arrivals from Ukraine-Russia were low in February due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Prior to the war, it was the region with the highest number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives. However, tourist arrivals from Russia have increased recently.

The Maldives recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals in 2019. A total of 1.7 million tourist arrivals were recorded that year.

The Maldives has recorded 970,000 tourist arrivals so far this year. An average of 4,500 tourists arrived in the Maldives this month. A total of 5,000 tourists visited the Maldives last Saturday and Sunday.

According to Dr. Mausoom, tourist arrivals to the Maldives will increase during the upcoming months. He said that despite the current low season in the Maldives, the tourism industry employees were not able to go on holiday as tourist arrivals are on the rise.

The highest number of tourist arrivals to The Maldives so far are from India. A total of 137,000 tourists arrived from the country, while the second highest number of tourist arrivals were recorded from the UK at 110,000. The third-highest number of tourists arrived from Russia. A total of 103,000 Russian tourists have arrived in the Maldives so far.