Most tourists visited from China last month

Data shows that most people visited Maldives from China last month after the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism, Sri Lanka achieved a growth of 1553.4 percent in the Chinese market in July.

China was the largest tourist market in Maldives until 2019.

Before the outbreak, 284,029 tourists arrived from China in 2019. This accounted for 16.7 percent of the total tourist arrivals that year.

The number of Chinese tourists fell sharply in March 2020 following the closure of the Chinese border during the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend continued until the border reopened this year after three years.

China resumed direct flights to Maldives on January 18, 2023. A total of 92,391 tourists visited Maldives from China as of July this year. The number of tourists that visited Maldives last month was 151,587 people. Out of that 28939 tourists were from China.

China is currently the third-largest tourist market in Maldives.

The Ministry of Tourism said the number of Chinese tourists has been growing rapidly in the past six months since China opened to travel. The ministry said it hoped to achieve pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible.