Tourism Ministry has revealed that a record number of tourists visited the Maldives in 2019.
With 1.7 million tourist arrivals, this is the first time in the country's history that such a large number of tourists visited the archipelago in one year.
Statistics prepared by the Tourism Ministry based on numbers provided by Maldives Immigration and registered tourist facilities show 171,292 tourists visited the Maldives in December 2019, bringing the total number of tourists to visit the popular destination during the last year to 1,702,831.
This is a 14.7% increment compared to the number of tourists who visited the Maldives in 2018.
In 2019, the most number of tourists visited the country from Europe. While 833,904 tourists visited from European countries, the second-most number of tourists arrived from the Asia Pacific region. 705,117 tourists visited the Maldives from the region, which is a 13.5% increase from the previous year. While America comes in third with 84,793 arrivals from the region, 60,003 tourists visited from Middle-Eastern countries. 18,698 visitors arrived from the African continent.
Among separate tourism markets, the most number of tourists to visit from a single country was from China. While the majority of tourist arrivals is made up of Chinese tourists in recent years, 16.7% of total tourists who visited the Maldives in 2019 came from China. A record number of tourists also visited from India, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
A significant increase in tourist arrivals from India was recorded in 2019, with 166,015 tourists arriving from the neighbouring country. This is an 83.5% increase compared to the previous year.
The government achieved its goal of hosting a target of 1.5 million tourists on November 24, 2019. While 1.6 million tourists had visited the country by December 15, the number increased to 1.7 million, ending the year with a record number of tourist arrivals.
