The latest travel figure updates from the Ministry of Tourism indicated that the total number of tourist arrivals as of 16th March 2022 reached 359,272 in annual terms.
Meanwhile, the tourist arrivals exclusively from 01st to 16th of March reached 78,500 which is a 39.8% growth when compared with the tourist arrivals for the same period in 2021; which stood at 52,422, and a growth of 32.0% when compared with the corresponding period in 2020; during which the arrival count reached 56,838.
However, the arrival total for March so far is still 4.1% below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, during the corresponding period tourist arrivals reached 81,805.
Furthermore, tourist arrivals observed growth of 49.7% on a month-on-month basis so far in March, while in annual terms the tourist arrivals from January to the review date increased by 48.8%.
The daily arrival average has dropped to 4,906 so far in March compared to 5,322 in February 2022, while the average duration of stay has also gone down to 8.2 days in the review month compared with 8.6 days in February.
Although Russia has maintained the top source market position, statistics indicate that the market may not be able to remain in the position for long. As of 16th March 2022, cumulative total of arrivals from Russia was recorded at 49,364 which is a 13.7% of the total tourist arrivals to the Maldives.
The market share held by Russian tourist arrival has gone down steadily in recent weeks in light of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that has significantly deteriorated the transcontinental nation’s social and economic drive.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom which has been steadily floating in second spot has started gaining momentum to reach a cumulative tourist arrival total of 40,672 as of 16th March while bumping up its market share to 11.3%.
On the other hand, tourist arrivals from India has also started to increase at an elevated pace with total number of arrivals recorded at 36,349 so far with a market share of 10.1%.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has unquestionably put a lasting dent on the latter’s tourist movement since tourist arrivals from Ukraine did not observe significant growth while the market has receded from eighth spot to tenth spot with just 2.3% of share. So far, a total of 8,121 tourists from Ukraine arrived in the Maldives.