Maldives welcomes half a million tourists

The Maldives welcomed more than half a million tourists in the first five months of the year.
According to the latest data from the country’s Tourism Ministry, the island nation saw 518,166 international visitors in January-May 2014, 11.9% more than the same period last year. And this growth was driven by arrivals from China, which increased 23.3% year-on-year to 141,249, accounting for 27.3% of total visitors.
Overall, the Asia Pacific region contributed 229,847 arrivals to the Maldives in the five-month period, marking year-on-year growth of 24.7%. Following China, India, Japan and Korea are the largest source markets from this region.
But Europe remains the highest regional source market for the Maldives with 253,602 visitors, or 48.3% of total arrivals. However this only represented a growth rate of 0.7% compared to the same period last year. Germany, UK, Russia, Italy and France were the top five European source markets.
This latest data means that the Maldives is well on track to exceed the 1.13 million international visitors it achieved in 2013.
Source: Travel Daily