Tourist arrivals increase by six percent

Tourist arrivals in September 2012 have increased by 6.9 percent when compared with the corresponding period in 2011.

In spite of this overall increase, tourist arrivals from European countries decreased by 3.2 percent in September 2012 due to off season.

Tourist arrivals from the UK went down by 20.1 percent, Russia went down by 7 percent and Italy went down by 20.8 percent.

Tourist arrivals from China, on the other hand, increased by 25.2 percent with 25,178 tourists arriving in Maldives in September 2012. This also makes China the country from which most tourists visited Maldives in September 2012.

In total, 76,806 tourists visited Maldives in September 2012.

By the end of September, 691,608 tourists have visited Maldives this year.

Tourism Ministry’s target is to have one million tourists arrive in Maldives by the end of the year.

The Ministry has also planned several events this year, to mark the 40th anniversary of the tourism industry.