Maldives records over 15,500 tourist arrivals in first 5 days

Maldives has recorded more than 15,500 tourist arrivals in less than a week into January.

Statistics released by the Tourism Ministry show Maldives recorded 15,678 tourist arrivals between January 1 to January 5.

DAILY TOURIST ARRIVALS (JANUARY 2021)

January 1: 2,005 tourist arrivals

January 2: 4,160 tourist arrivals

January 3: 4,195 tourist arrivals

January 4: 2,646 tourist arrivals

January 5: 2,672 tourist arrivals

Tourism Ministry states Maldives has been receiving an average of 3,136 tourists per day.

The figure is significantly lower than the 27,314 tourist arrivals recorded during the same period last year, underscoring the impact of the travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Maldives’ tourism sector.

Maldives reopened its border after a near four-month lockdown on July 15 last year. Tourist arrivals initially remained low, but began picking up around October, especially due to the year-end holidays.

The top source markets for tourist arrivals to Maldives at present is Russia, India, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom.

The top source market for tourist arrivals last year was India, with 62,905 arrivals.

Maldives recorded total 555,399 tourist arrivals last year.

The Tourism Ministry is optimistic the tourism sector will pick up this year, and have set the target for 1.5 million arrivals.

Maldives is currently open to all tourists, provided they have proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken maximum 96 hours before departure from their original destination.

Tourists are issued 30-day visa upon arrival.