The Ministry of Tourism has revealed a total arrival of 128,548 tourists as of January 21, 2024, an 11.6% increment from the same period last year.
Amid the tourism peak season, the arrivals have continued to flourish as the Maldives is enjoying an 11% improvement in figures compared to the same, first-21 days of last year.
Moreover, the top 10 rankings have observed significant changes compared to last year. While Russia maintains its arrival dominance over the rest of the source markets, Italy has emerged as the second strongest market.
UK is maintaining its third rank, though it is currently facing some strong competition from China as it has been gaining arrival momentum. Germany, which usually remains idle on fifth has slipped to sixth position while India has replaced Germany’s previous spot.
Poland is the newest entry, and has beaten Kazakhstan to enter the ninth spot while the latter is at the tenth.
The surprise drop in India’s rank may be tied to the ongoing spat between the Maldives and the South Asian giant, which sparked earlier in January owing to derogatory remarks made by some top level Maldivian government officials against the Indian Prime Minister.
Following this incident, the officials in question were suspended, however, the incident has since sparked strong conflict among the peoples of both countries; which grows intense everyday.
Earlier, there were reports of multiple booking cancellations by Indian tourists to the Maldives while some of the major travel agents and booking sites were offering concessions to every traveler who cancelled their trip to the Maldives.