Maldives records highest tourist arrivals of the year on Sunday with 9,903

Tourism Ministry states Maldives recorded the highest tourist arrivals of the year on Sunday with a total of 9,903 tourist arrivals.

While Maldives recorded 9,903 tourist arrivals on Sunday, the second-highest number of tourist arrivals recorded this year was on last week’s Sunday, at 9,613. The third highest number of tourist arrivals was recorded on Saturday, at 9,584.

According to Tourism Ministry statistics, Maldives has recorded a total of 201,637 tourist arrivals so far in December, with the total number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives so far this year coming up to 2,223,698.

The highest number of tourist arrivals this year has been recorded in January, which falls in the peak season, at 214,863.

The top tourist market to the Maldives is China, with 328,876 arrivals, accounting for 14.8 percent of the total arrivals. The second top tourist market is Russia, with 274,246 arrivals, accounting for 12.3 percent of the totals followed by UK in third with 200,484 arrivals accounting for 9 percent of the total arrivals.

Majority of the tourists, accounting for 73.4 percent of the total arrivals which is 1,632,340 tourists, stayed in resorts.

Notably, Maldives’ main international airport, Velana International Airport (VIA) saw one of its busiest days on Sunday, serving 27,000 passengers.

It is currently the tourism peak season combined with the school holidays resulting in the travel boom.