Maldives records over 35,000 tourist arrivals in Nov.

THE EDITION: The Maldives Immigration last Friday revealed that over 35,000 tourists visited the Maldives during the month of November, marking the highest number of monthly arrivals since the country reopened its borders on July 15.

As per the statistics revealed by the Immigration, the number of arrivals saw an increase of 66 percent in November, shooting up to 35,759 arrivals from October’s 21,515.

The statistics place the daily average of visitors at 1,192. The highest number of visitors recorded in one day stood at 2,299 while the lowest number of visitors recorded in one day was 569.

Most of last month’s visitors arrived in the Maldives from Russia, consisting of a total of 8,581 tourists, followed closely by India, with 7,610 tourists. Visitors from the United Kingdom took the third place, with a total of 2,093 arrivals throughout November.

The Maldives reopened its borders to international passengers on July 15, after nearly four months since the state halted issuing on-arrival visas on March 27. The guesthouses were permitted to resume operations and kick start local tourism on October 15.

Although the Maldives has noted a significant reduction in tourist arrivals compared to the pre-COVID figures, the numbers have maintained a steady upward slope, indicating a stable increase but the country has a long way to go before the pre-pandemic figures are achieved.

Prior to the border closure as a preventive measure amidst the ongoing pandemic, the Maldives recorded an average of 4,200 visitors daily.

However, the tourism minister earlier expressed hopes for the industry’s recovery, estimating that 100,000 tourists would visit the Maldives before end-2020. The Tourism Ministry expects a total of 500,000 arrivals for the year.