India has overtaken Russia as the leading source market of tourists to the Maldives this year.
As per the latest statistics of the Ministry of Tourism, the Maldives has recorded 777,513 tourist arrivals this year, of which 21.5% was contributed by India. Russia is now second on the list of top source markets, with a contribution of 20.8% of arrivals this year.
Since the reopening of borders in July last year, India and Russia have been the two leading source markets of tourists to the Maldives. Russia had been the leading market from last year until early February this year, before India took the top spot. However, Russia took the lead again in May when tourist arrivals from India began to drop due to a surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.
As per the statistics of the tourism ministry, the Maldives has recorded 21,547 tourist arrivals during the first five days of September. This is a 15.4% increase compared to the same period in 2019, when 18,671 tourist arrivals were recorded.