Recording its one millionth arrival on July 15, a month earlier than in 2022 and three months earlier than in 2021, Maldives shows that its tourism recovery continues to accelerate.

On July 15, when Anton Pavlov and his family landed at Velana International Airport in Male, he became the millionth tourist to set foot in Maldives in the year 2023. The visitors were welcomed at the airport by Thoyyib Mohamed, CEO and Managing Director of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Company (MMPRC), the destination’s tourism promotion body.

In 2023, Maldives has reached the milestone of a million tourists much earlier than the preceding three years, hitting the landmark in July itself, as against August in 2022 and as late as October in 2021. The figures since the beginning of 2023 show that the tourism sector is firmly on the path to recovering to 2019 peaks and even going beyond.

According to the Maldives Ministry of Tourism’s figures while 172,499 tourists were welcomed during January, 177,915 came in February, 173,514 in March, 164,357 in April, 120,959 in May and 120,363 during June. Until July 12, over 55,000 tourists had already landed in the country, says the Ministry. It adds that the daily average arrivals in 2023 is at 5,102 and the tourists are staying in the Maldives for an average of seven days.

India remains the top source market for Maldives for yet another year, with 11.8 pc marketshare as 115,837 Indian visitors had landed in Maldives by July 12 since the start of this year. Russia was second largest with 115,334 arrivals, taking a share of 11.7 pc of the total arrivals.

The United Kingdom was the third largest market, with 83,942 arrivals, giving it 8.5 pc share. China, which opened just a few months earlier, has already propelled into the fourth spot with 74348 arrivals, taking a hefty 7.6 pc share and Germany rounding off the top 5 markets, with 68,484 arrivals and a 7 pc share.

Maldives is targetting 1.9 million visitors this year, a target looking increasingly achievable as the destination continues to move ahead. The Maldivian government is now trying to expand tourism across the entire country and has set a target of 3.5 million tourists, annually, by 2028.