Record number of tourists in January 2007
A record number of tourists visited the Maldives last month, statistics show.
The Tourism Ministry said 64,570 tourists arrived in Maldives in January, compared with 58,332 at the same time last year. The previous record month was March 2004, pre-tsunami, when 63,855 visited.
“This is a great start”, Director General of the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) Dr. Abdulla Mausoom told Haveeru. “We expect the arrivals to increase during the rest of the year too. The new resorts that haven’t begun operations yet will soon begin their operations.”
The record number of visitors shows that the Maldives has bounced back fast from the effects of the December 2004 tsunami and is now expanding beyond its capacity at that time. The figures also suggest that the targeted resort boycott by the NGO Friends of Maldives has had little direct effect on the tourism industry in the Maldives.
Some of the other interesting observations include the increment of India arrival in to the Maldives. With over 1500 indian visitors to the Maldives in January makes it highest ever number of indian visitors in any given month. Air Sahara began its operation about 3 months back direct to Bangalore. It will start daily service to Trivandrum in the comming weeks. With these new routes and increased frequencies it is expected that indian visitor number will increase gradually.
Other interesting observations include the french arrival surpassing the German tourist arrival in the Maldives.
The Tourism Ministry says 77 resorts and 9 hotels were in operation offering a total of 17,139 beds. On average each tourist spent 7.9 days in the Maldives. Maldives resorts and hotels experienced 94.8 percent occupancy rates. Currently there are 89 resorts and 9 hotels allowed to operate in the Maldives with a combined bed capacity of 18,527.
