The 500,000th year-end target for tourist arrivals has been achieved today with the arrival of Ms. Kirstin Madeleine, from Germany.
This is a massive achievement to the Maldives as COVID19 has disrupted tourist travelers globally and many countries are yet struggling to overcome the impact.
Maldives also received the World’s Leading Destination award at the Grand Final of the World Travel Awards 2020. This is the first time Maldives won the award in the history of the island nation.
As the year 2019 saw an arrival of 1.7 million tourists to the Maldives, the yearly target of 2 million tourists was set for 2020. However, the country was forced to close its borders due to the spread of COVID19 on the 27th of March. Borders were reopened on 15th July.
Tourist arrivals were low at first but improvements were seen as weeks went by. Over 100,000 visitors have arrived since the border reopening.
Tourism Ministry forecasts an estimated arrival of 1.5 million tourists for the year 2021
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