The Maldives has announced a 10.2 per cent year-on-year increase in the total number of UK visitor arrivals in 2018, when compared with 2017.

In total, 114,602 UK tourists arrived in the Indian Ocean destination last year, compared with 103,977 in 2017.

December alone saw 10,784 UK tourist arrivals in the Maldives, representing an increase of 11 per cent when compared to the same month in 2017 when 9,717 UK travellers arrived in the Maldives.

The UK represents the second largest European inbound market for tourism to the Maldives and the third largest globally, with holidaymakers from the UK counting for 7.7 per cent of total arrivals to the Maldives in 2018.

Globally, the Maldives welcomed 1.48 million international tourists in 2018, representing a 6.8 per cent year-on-year increase when compared to the total arrivals in 2017. 

Commenting on the increase of tourist arrivals, the Maldives minister of tourism, Ali Waheed, said: “The UK is one of the Maldives’ most important inbound markets for tourism, so we are extremely pleased to see a continued increase in the number of British travellers who choose to holiday here.

“This year, we will welcome the opening of several new exceptional four-star and luxury resorts so we look forward to welcoming even more new and returning UK guests to our islands.”

In addition to new tourism developments in the Maldives, the destination was presented with a host of impressive industry awards in 2018 and was most recently crowned as the World’s Leading Dive Destination at the World Travel Awards, which were held in Lisbon in December.