Ministry of Tourism has revealed Russia has taken over from India as the top source market of tourists to the Maldives this year.
In 2020, and earlier this year, the largest number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives were recorded from India. However, the spike in COVID-19 cases in the neighbouring country has significantly decreased the number of Indian tourist arrivals in the Maldives.
Statistics shows a total of 396,982 tourists have visited the Maldives so far this year, 22.4% of which are from Russia, and 21.9% are from India. The third highest number of tourists arrived from Ukraine, while the fourth highest number of tourists were from Germany, and the fifth highest were from Kyrgyzstan.
Tourist arrivals were reported at 92,103 in January, 96,882 in February, 109,585 in March, and 91,200 in April. The statistics also show 7,212 tourist arrivals in the first two days of May, with an average of 3,000 tourist arrivals so far this year. Tourists staying in the Maldives spend an average of 9 days in the country.