The number of daily tourist arrivals to have dipped, the Tourism Ministry has stated.
According to statctucs released by the ministry, the number of daily arrivals have remained below 1,500 since May 17th. The latest figures show 1,576 tourists arrived in the Maldives on May 20th, with the numbers fluctuating between 1,300 and 1,500 over the past four days.
The reason for the fall in number of arrivals is due to the current period being the off-peak tourism season as well as due to travel restrictions from one of the most popular source markets, India due to its current COVID-19 situation. The number of daily arrivals had remained above 2,000 before the government restricted entry for Indian travelers.
The government had hoped that this year's off-season would be the most lucrative off-season to date. Following a decline in the number of arrivals, Tourism Minister Abdulla Mausoom earlier told AVAS that the decrease arrival numbers were likely due to the country's COVID-19 situation as well as due to the recent terror attack targeted at Speaker of the Parliament and former president Mohamed Nasheed. However, the government is still hopeful of meeting its vision of hosting 1.5 million tourists this year, said the minister.
Statistics show 436,601 tourists have visited the Maldives thus far this year. While the Maldives closed its borders to tourists for three months last year, 555,494 tourists visited the Maldives since the borders reopened in July 2020. The country welcomed a record 1.7 million tourists in 2019.
