Maldives is on the brink of reaching one million tourist arrivals this year, the quickest the island nation will reach the target in its history.
The Ministry of Tourism and Environment figures showed that 912,109 tourists have arrived in the Maldives so far this year, which means the globally renowned tourist destination needs 87,891 to reach the much coveted one million mark.
Maldives had reached the one million arrival figure on 27 July last year, which was the quickest on record. With a little over two months left and based on the current daily arrival figures, the island nation is expected to comfortably break the record this year.
According to the figures, tourist arrivals as of 17 May is 8.2 percent more than the 843,356 recorded during the same period last year. Maldives welcomes 6,658 holidaymakers to its shores on a daily basis, the figures showed.
China continues to dominate the tourism source markets with 105,191 tourists during the period. Russia remains second with 98,419 followed by the United Kingdom in third with 93,853 tourists.
The world renowned tourist destination in 2024, witnessed the highest number of tourist arrivals in a single year in its 52 year tourism history.
According to tourism figures, a total of 2,047,435 tourists had holidayed in the Maldives in 2024. This is a nine percent increase from the 1،878،543 tourists from 2023.
This marks the first time Maldives has welcomed two million tourists to its shores in a calendar year.
The government aims to improve tourism occupancy and bring in 15 percent more tourists this year than last year, while boosting tourism revenue to USD 5 billion.