{"id":16476,"date":"2026-01-19T23:32:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:33:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:33:39","slug":"tourist-arrivals-off-to-a-great-start-in-2026-maldives-attracts-over-100000-travelers-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476","title":{"rendered":"Tourist arrivals off to a great start in 2026; Maldives attracts over 100,000 travelers already"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The tourism industry of the Maldives is off to a spectacular start in 2026 as the country attracts more than 120,000 so far in January.<\/p>\n<p>Statistics from the Ministry of Tourism shows an annual increment of 10% in arrivals in comparison to the same period last year. This increment trajectory remains the same when the two years before are factored in as well.<\/p>\n<p>As per statistics, tourist arrivals for the same period in 2025 stood at 117,000.<\/p>\n<p>Russia is the top tourist market to the Maldives so far this year with more than 20,000 arrivals. Italy is the second strongest tourist market with over 15,000 arrivals.<\/p>\n<p>UK is at third spot with more than 11,000 arrivals. Meanwhile, China remains in fourth spot with a little over 8,000 arrivals. If former trends be factored, China is likely to take top spot before the year end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tourism industry of the Maldives is off to a spectacular start in 2026 as the country attracts more than 120,000 so far in January. Statistics from the Ministry of Tourism shows an annual increment of 10% in arrivals in comparison to the same period last year. This increment trajectory remains the same when the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2425,2464,2507,2429,2931],"tags":[785,3199,1356,2102,2126,2159],"class_list":{"0":"post-16476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle","8":"category-local-news","9":"category-top-stories-featured-area","10":"category-tourism","11":"category-travel","12":"tag-global-tourism","13":"tag-hospitality","14":"tag-maldives-tourism","15":"tag-tourism-and-hospitality","16":"tag-tourist-arrivals","17":"tag-travel-and-tourism"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tourist arrivals off to a great start in 2026; Maldives attracts over 100,000 travelers already - Maldives Business Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tourist arrivals off to a great start in 2026; Maldives attracts over 100,000 travelers already - Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The tourism industry of the Maldives is off to a spectacular start in 2026 as the country attracts more than 120,000 so far in January. Statistics from the Ministry of Tourism shows an annual increment of 10% in arrivals in comparison to the same period last year. This increment trajectory remains the same when the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-19T18:32:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-19T18:33:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Villa-Resorts.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16476\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Reehaan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#\/schema\/person\/a0eedc1134716e7c8e4da095494670c2\"},\"headline\":\"Tourist arrivals off to a great start in 2026; 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