Following visible setbacks to the tourism and hospitality industry for the most parts of 2020, the industry has observed significant improvement as of May 2021.
In the most recent ‘Economic Updates’ from Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) it was reported that tourist arrivals and bednights had increased during May 2021 after recording “marked growths” in April as well.
Moreover, the annual increase in tourist arrivals has reflected “the base effect of the significant drop in arrivals in May 2020” after the country’s government implemented an international border closure on 27 March 2020 in a bid to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, tourist arrivals for May 2021 was recorded at 64,613 whereas in the corresponding month last year there had been only 41 tourist arrivals.
Furthermore, Russia was marked as the top tourist market to Maldives in May 2021 with Germany and United States closely following behind.
Additionally, the operational bed capacity in the tourism industry observed a sixteen-fold increase in comparison with May 2020, while there was a 528% increment in April 2021. Moreover, the occupancy rate increased to 39% in May 2021, which was at 51% in April 2021 from just 5% in May 2020.
The recent statistical report also informs for the overall period of January to May 2021, the total tourist arrivals increased by 19% in annual terms whereas it marked a decline of 49% during the corresponding period in 2020.
Moreover, total bed-nights of the industry increased by 35% in comparison with a decline of 42% in the same period last year.
During the review period the average guest-stay decreased to 9.0 days from 23.8 days in the corresponding period of 2020.