Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) reports tourist bed nights increased by 6% and arrivals declined by 8% in August 2022, in comparison with the same month in 2021.
Similarly, bed nights rose by 18% and arrivals declined by 5% when compared with pre-pandemic levels of August 2019. Tourist arrivals in August 2022 stood at 131,862.
According to central bank, tourist arrivals “mainly reflected the robustness in arrivals from the main source markets of Europe and India.” During the month, top source markets included Russia, India, UK, Italy and Germany. Moreover, for the review month Russia remained the top source market, while arrivals exceeded pre-war levels increasing by 9%.
Operational bed capacity in the tourism industry showed an increase of 7,831 beds in August 2022, compared with the same month last year. Occupancy rate dropped to 59% in the review month from 65% in August 2021.
Meanwhile, from January to August 2022, tourist arrivals increased by 43% in annual terms. Bed nights showed an increment of 36% in annual terms for the same period. However, tourist arrivals declined 5% in annual terms, and bed nights registered 15% increment in annual terms.
Average stay dropped to 8.2 days in annual terms in 2022, compared to 9.1 days during the corresponding period 2021.