A colorful celebration was held at Velana International Airport on Wednesday to welcome the 1.8 millionth tourist to arrive in the Maldives this year. The Emirates flight carrying Maldives’ 1.8 millionth tourist, Mr. Stefan Mathijs from Netherlands arrived at Velana International Airport at 02:55 p.m. today.
Mr. Stefan Mathijs will spend four days in the Maldives before departing for Sri Lanka and returning back for additional five days in the Maldives.
His arrival marked the achievement of the government’s annual tourist arrival target for this year.
The statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism on Thursday show that Russia is the leading tourist market this year with 197,824 arrivals recorded as of 13th December 2023. India comes in second on the list with 194,630 arrivals whereas China placed third with a total of 181,003 arrivals. Other countries that ranked in on the list of top 10 markets for 2023 are the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, USA, France, Spain and Switzerland respectively.
The busiest month for Maldives tourism this year was February, during which the country welcomed a whopping 177,915 visitors.
