Despite the risk of booking cancellations due to political uncertainty, tourist arrivals have shown a robust performance, achieving 28% of the arrivals target for the year, according to Quarterly Economic Bulletin of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).
The tourism sector prospered during the first quarter of 2018, underpinned by the continued favourable economic conditions in the main source markets, along with the increased flight movements by international carriers as well as the commencement of new flights. MMA reported the tourist arrivals totalled 420,103 during the first quarter of the year.
Moreover, the striking growth in tourist arrivals, which reached 17% in annual terms is an increase compared to the past three years, according to MMA. In the first quarter of last year, 359,053 tourists arrived in Maldives, while 344,166 tourists arrived to Maldives in 2016. Moreover, 329,968 tourists were recorded in 2015. Tourist arrivals increased with the increased flight movements by international carriers as well as the commencement of new flights to Maldives, according to the quarterly bulletin.
Together with the growth in arrivals, a marked upturn was also observed in the tourist bed nights, which grew by 18% when compared with same period last year, although the average duration of stay remained unchanged, in annual terms, at 6.5 days. Reflecting on these developments, tourists receipts are estimated to be at USD 993.5 million during the period, which is a sizable growth of 20% when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2017.