Saturday, January 29, 2011

2010 records Maldives’ highest tourist arrivals

The Maldives saw the highest number of tourist arrivals ever into the country in 2010, when the number rose by a whopping 20.7 percent compared to 2009.

Altogether 791,917 tourists visited the Maldives from January to December 2010 as against the 685,852 tourist arrivals in 2009. It marks an increase of 130,065 more tourists this year, Haveeru reported quoting the Tourism Ministry statistics.

“Figures show that China dominated the Maldives market last year with 118,961 tourists accounting for 15 percent of the total arrival.”

Tourist arrivals from China increased by 96.1 percent in 2010, it said.

UK follows China closely with 114,158 tourist arrivals into the Maldives that makes up 14.4 percent of the total arrivals.

Maldivian resorts operated 20,195 beds on average last year while the average occupancy stayed at 76.7 percent.

In 2009, 18,962 beds operated while the average occupancy rate stayed at 72.5 percent.

According to the statistics, tourists stayed 5.98 million nights in the Maldives – a 16.3 percent increase to the 2009 figure.

The government expects the tourist arrivals to cross the 800,000 target this year.

Source: http://www.asiantribune.com

No comments: