Spanish tourist becomes 2026’s one millionth visitor to Maldives

Almudena Esparza, a woman from Spain, has become the one millionth tourist to visit the Maldives this year.

She arrived in the Maldives with her partner on a Qatar Airways flight on Saturday.

Visit Maldives, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), hosted a special celebratory event at Velana International Airport (VIA) to mark her arrival.

Esparza was personally received by Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Ameen.

The Maldives welcomed a record 2.2 million tourist arrivals last year. The island destination, which won the award for the World Travel Awards (WTA) World's Leading Destination for the sixth consecutive year in 2025, had originally expected to raise tourist arrivals to 2.4 million this year.

But despite a strong start to the year, the country has been a dip in arrivals due to global headwinds and flight disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The Maldives had welcomed its one millionth tourist last year on June 7, marking the fastest that the island national had achieved the milestone.

In a post on X, Ameen said that managing to reach the one-million mark despite the significant global air transport disruptions, particularly across the Middle East corridor, demonstrates the resilience of the Maldivian tourism sector.

He thanked all tourism stakeholders and airlines for their dedication over the past months, and also extended special appreciation to President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu and the government for their timely decisions and continued support.

“I am confident the remainder of 2026 will make this a strong year,” he said.