Statistics published by the Tourism Ministry has shown that an average of 628 tourists visit the Maldives daily after the tourism-dependant nation opened its borders to tourists.
Official figures upto October 5 show 1,752 tourists visited the Maldives between July 15 and 30th. The average daily arrivals during July was at 117 tourists.
According to the figures, 7,628 tourists visited the Maldives during August, increasing the average daily arrivals to 246. A total of 9,538 tourists arrived in September, further increasing the daily arrivals average to 318. 3,140 tourists arrived in the Maldives during the first five days of October, and the new arrivals average is now at 628, the figures showed. Although this is an 80 percent increase in arrivals compared to when the borders were reopened, the figure is still behind by 90 percent compared to pre-COVID-19 arrivals.
The statistics further showed that the most number of tourists arrived on flights operated by Qatar Airways. The airline completed 60 flight movements in September, carrying 4,566 tourists. The second-most number of tourists were carried by Emirates, which completed 50 flight movements last month with 4,058 tourists. Russia’s Aeroflot, which completed 12 flight movements, carried the third-most number of tourists with 1,820 tourists arriving via the airline.
While the total number of flight movements in September was at 242, authorities believe the number of arrivals will increase in October, given that British Airways is scheduled to re-commence operation on October 16. Emirates has also announced that it would increase the number of flights operated to the Maldives.
Since July 15 until now, the most number of tourists arrived in the Maldives from Russia. The Russian market accounts for 16 percent of total arrivals during the period with 3,589 arrivals from the country. Possessing 13.5 percent of arrivals, UAE comes second with 2,967 tourists arriving from the destination. The United States comes third with the arrival of 2,032 tourists.
The government previously estimated that 800,000 tourists would visit the Maldives between July and December this year. However, the figure has since been revised to 100,000. Out of these, only 22,000 tourists have arrived thus far with only two more months remaining in this year.
