The original Dhivehi article was published on Avas.mv website on 22nd November 2017.
The following is a loose translation:
- A big tourism boom
- Chinese market still low
- A notable rise in the European market
After experiencing a low tourist arrival for years, this year it has started to rise. According to the tourism ministry’s statistics, this year till October, 1,225,995 tourists arrived. It is a 6% increase compared to last year’s tourist arrivals which were 1,062,033.
According to the statistics, this year till this month, from the whole of Europe 511,851 tourists arrived. Compared to last year of this month which was 462,528, it is a 10.7% increase. From Europe, it was the Western Europeans that arrived more. From this region, to date 181,967 tourists arrived. Compared to last year which was 174,170, it is a 4.5% increase.
From the Europe, the most tourists arrived from Germany. In last month, from Germany, 91,238 tourists arrived. It is an increase of 4.1% compared to last year’s August which was 87,684 tourist arrivals. And 84,679 tourists arrived from the UK the second country with most visitors. This amount is a decrease of 0.6% from last year which was at 85,194 tourist arrivals. And the third most visited country was Italy. Till last month 67,094 tourists arrived from Italy. This is a 21.9% increase compared to last year of this month which was 55,044 tourist arrivals. And the fourth most tourists arrived from Russia. Till last month 47,943 tourists arrived from Russia. This is a 32.4% increase compared to last year of this month, which was 36,212 tourist arrivals. From France till last month 33,529 tourists arrived. Compared to last year of this month it is an increase of 1.3%, which was 33,094 tourist arrivals.
A summary of the European tourist arrivals:
- Germany 91,238 (+4.1%)
- UK 84,679 (-0.6%)
- Italy 67,094 (+21.9%)
- Russia 47,943 (+32.4%)
- France 33,529 (+1.3%)
European market aside, from the US, a hopeful market, 30,450 tourists arrived to date. Compared to last year of this month this figure is an increase of 18.3%, which was recorded as 25,730 tourist arrivals.
To current date, Chinese nationals were the highest among the tourist arrivals of this year. Till last month, from China, 265,417 tourists arrived. Compared to last year of this month, it is a decrease to 8.2%, and the recorded arrivals from China were 289,123. And from Asia, the growing market India, to date, 63,141 tourists were recorded to have arrived. Compared to last year of the same month, it is an increase 25.4%, which was recorded as 50,369.
While 1.1 million tourists have arrived to current date, the government has estimated end of this year it will go up to 1.3 million tourists.
