Maldives Tourism industry: the new and the improved

2022 has been a big year for the Maldivian tourism industry. This small island nation that started its tourism industry with just one resort in 1972, recently celebrated its 50-year anniversary on 3rd October 2022. Along with the celebration of 50 years, the industry achieved major accomplishments this year after facing the hardships of 2020-2021.

While the Maldivian tourism industry has been accomplishing great miles this year, many speculated that the Maldives would not be able to reach the 1.6 million tourist arrival goal that was set for the year 2022. However, the tourism industry flourished extremely well, and as of 20th December 2022, the Maldives officially achieved their tourist arrival target with more than a week remaining before the end of the year.

Here are some of the greatest milestones reached within the tourism industry this year:

Tourist arrivals and international flights on an increase

When the pandemic caused the global lockdown in 2020, many worried for the Maldives as the tourism industry is responsible for a large portion of the country’s income and economic growth. However, Maldives was one of the first countries to work around the pandemic to allow visitors into the country in a safe manner. While a large portion of the world was still in full-blown lockdown with their borders closed, the Maldives slowly and very safely opened up their borders to the tourism industry on 15th July 2020 by following through with the measures put in place by the World Health Organisation (WHO) such as vaccinations, quarantines, social distancing and wearing masks.

As the world slowly recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives took advantage of the moment to market the country by launching several marketing campaigns. This effort by Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) clearly paid off as the tourist arrival rate in the Maldives hiked up. By November, the tourist arrivals were already nearing the annual arrival rate of 2019, indicating that the Maldivian tourism industry was really picking up.

Other than the marketing campaigns by MMPRC, the increment of international flights in the Maldives also contributed to the increased number of visitors. By 13th December 2022, the Maldives officially had 21 international flights operating in the country. With the increased amount of airlines flying to the country, especially targetted towards the festive season, it is no surprise that the Maldivian tourist arrival rates increased, and the reason for the increased flights was mainly due to other countries finally opening up their borders after a 2-year long lockdown following the pandemic.

There has been a shift in the visitor market following the pandemic as the top visitors for the country in 2022 are India and Russia, previously this spot was held by Chinese visitors. However, there may yet be another shift in the following year as Chinese tourists start to fly-in.

Achieving accomplishments

This win for the tourism industry of the Maldives came at a very special time for the country as we celebrated 50 years of tourism industry in 2022. Throughout this year, destinations, tourist boards and travel agencies of the Maldives took home several awards, showing how accomplished the Maldivian tourism industry has become since its inception.

However, one of the greatest accomplishments and the highlight of the industry in 2022 took place in November when the Maldives won two awards at the World Travel Awards –  including the leading destination award.

2022 marked the third year the Maldives received the title of the ‘World-Leading Destination’ award, marking a significant win for the country. In addition to this, MMPRC secured a brand new title for the Maldives by winning the ‘World’s Leading Tourist Board’ award as well.

While 2022 has been a challenging year economically with inflation rates sky-rocketing as well as the challenges the country faced due to climate change, the tourism industry did not fail to amaze as they reached their goal before the year ended and brought some exciting aspects to the industry this year.

In the coming year, there are surely going to be new and harder challenges that the industry will have to navigate through, but if we learnt anything from this year, it is the resilience of the Maldives tourism industry.