Tourist arrivals to Maldives increase in August 2009

Tourist arrivals to Maldives finally began to increase in August after being in gradual decline for a while.

Based on statistics released by the Department of Immigration and Emigration, the Tourism Ministry has said that a total of 52,338 tourists had arrived in Maldives in August, registering an increase of 1 percent over August 2008 tourist arrivals which was 51,824.

According to the Tourism Ministry’s statistics, tourist arrivals had been gradually decreasing every month since January this year.

Despite the tiny increase in tourist arrivals in August this year, the overall arrivals had decreased by 8.8 percent this year. A total of 455,423 tourists had arrived in Maldives during the first eight months last year, while 415,443 tourists had arrived during the same period this year.

The Tourism Ministry said that they had estimated earlier that the tourist arrivals would decrease by 11 percent this year but that the estimates had now been revised to show a 7.4 percent decrease.

On average, 85 resorts in Maldives had operated 19,428 beds, and occupancy rates for August 2009 were at 66.9 percent. Tourists had on average spent 8.8 nights in the Maldives.

Source: haveeru.com.mv/english