With over 1,000 coral islands, the world’s only underwater restaurant and idyllic beaches that inspire desktop backgrounds, the Maldives has many reasons to attract tourists. And they, indeed, make the trek. Last year, a record number of tourists visited the Indian Ocean country.
With over 1,000 resorts, the Maldives experienced a 12% increase in tourist arrivals last year compared to 2022 – the most ever for the atoll nation – totaling over 1.88 million tourists. In 2022, the island nation saw 1.67 million arrivals.
The most arrivals came from India, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and Germany, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
For the island nation, tourism is more than just welcoming new visitors. Tourism is the Maldives’ strongest economic driver, making up 58.3% of its total economy in 2022, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Over 70% of jobs in the Maldives are in the tourism industry.
The warm-weather country targeted 1.8 million tourists for 2023 and hit that number on Dec. 20, according to a press release by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation. The country even celebrated with a special ceremony for the Dutch tourist who was the 1.8 millionth visitor.
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“We are immensely proud of this achievement and remain committed to reaching the targets set for our tourism industry for next year as…
