Tourist arrivals increase by 10 percent

Tourist arrivals to the Maldives has increased by 10 percent over the first nine months of the year, by the end of September 2014.

Tourist Arrivals and Growth Rate January – September 2014, published by the Ministry of Tourism, states that a total of 901,004 tourists visited the country by the end of September 2014. As tourist arrivals in the first nine months of 2013 was 818,275, this is an increase of 10.1 percent.

The Ministry said that during this period, the highest tourist arrivals from one region, at 450,296, was from Asia and the Pacific. This is also a 17.3 percent increase in tourist arrivals from this region when compared with the same period last year.

The second largest market generating region to the Maldives, Europe, saw a decline in arrivals during the month of September 2014. However, total arrivals growth from the region stayed positive at 1.6 percent with a total of 386,914 tourists at the end of the period from January to September 2014, compared with the same period of 2013.

Tourist arrivals from China was 286,838 in the first nine months of 2014, and 34,425 in September 2014. The Chinese market registered a negative growth of 1.7 percent for the first time in September 2014, since becoming the number one market in 2010.

Tourist arrivals for September 2014 was 95,114 – a 3.1 percent increase compared with 92,298 in September 2013.