Leading luxury travel network, Virtuoso has named Maldives as the most popular international destination amongst its members in the United Kingdom.
Results of a survey of Virtuoso's members in the United Kingdom were revealed at the 29th annual Virtuoso Travel Week held from August 12 to 18 in Las Vegas, attracting nearly 6,000 delegates from around the world. The top five international destinations amongst British travellers for the upcoming autumn and winter seasons are the Maldives followed by the US, Italy, South Africa and Barbados, according to the survey of Virtuoso's members in the United Kingdom.
Virtuoso said it now has a global membership of more than 16,000 affiliated travel agents in 800 locations across 45 countries. It has added 1,000 agents since January as well as seven new countries, including Japan, South Korea and Russia. These members now account for a total of more than USD 21.2 billion in travel sales annually, up by 37% compared to the previous year.
The latest findings are in line with a recent study by TripAdvisor that ranked the Maldives fourth amongst the best value holiday destinations for British travellers during the summer. UK-based travel specialists Southall Travel has also found that the Maldives is amongst the most popular long haul holiday destinations for British travellers.
Europe is the single biggest source market for the Maldives tourism industry with a share of over 50% of total arrivals. The European marked observed a year on year increase of 10.7% in the first half of this year, with arrivals increasing to 320,162 from 289,234, according to official figures.
Britain is a major European source market, as more than 100,000 British travellers visited the Maldives last year, which is a 9.8% increase compared to the previous year. The growth has continued this year, as 51,737 British travellers visited the Maldives in the first 6 months of the year, which is a 0.4 percent increase from the 51,536 arrivals in the previous year.