Maldives aims to achieve over 1.6 million tourists in the year 2022. In 2019, before Covid struck, 1,702,887 tourist arrivals were recorded.
During the presidential address 2022, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih echoed positive forecasts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the Maldives would be amongst the top five fastest-growing economies in 2022. President Solih shared the administration’s vision of increasing the country’s GDP by 12 percent and attracting over 1.6 million visitors this year.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maldives’ economy slumped by an estimated 33.5 per cent in 2020 compared to the previous year, the highest downfall since economic record-keeping began in the country. However, with the administration’s swift and effective measures, positive results were seen last year, including surpassing the one million target of tourist arrivals by attracting over 1.3 million travelers. President Solih stated that GDP in 2021 is expected to be between 31.6 and 38.5 per cent, which is higher than the IMF and World Bank forecast.
In January 2022, 122,575 total arrivals were recorded which shows a 45.7% growth compared to numbers from 2021 January. Arrival numbers have kept their momentum as an average of 4227 tourists are recorded per day. Tourists are seen spending their holidays for a longer duration, extending the average duration from 8.7 days recorded in 2021 to 9 days recorded in 2022. As of 29th January 2022, there are 53,942 operational beds. This includes 167 resorts, 805 guesthouses, 157 safari vessels, 13 hotels, and 1 homestay property. Russia has continued to remain the top source market since the 1st of January 2022, with a total of 18.1 % market capacity.
