During the last nine months of 2014, the Maldives enjoyed outstanding performances in terms of tourist arrivals to the country. The first three quarters of the year ended with an impressive 10.1% growth with arrivals reaching a total of 901,004 at the end of the period. On a monthly basis, while the month of September recorded the weakest performance in terms of arrival growth with 3.1%, the month of February (110,705) saw the best results in terms of absolute numbers. While January, March and April recorded over 105 thousand arrivals each month, the month of August brought in over 104 thousand arrivals and July recorded 100 thousand arrivals. The months of May and June recorded the lowest count in arrivals with 91,296 and 83,347 tourists respectively.
Although ASIA AND THE PACIFIC maintained its high growth rate, taking account for 50% of all arrivals by the end of the first three quarters of 2014, the pace at which arrival from the region was increasing have slowed down since June. While the region enjoyed a robust growth of 22.3% at the end of first two quarters of 2014, growth rate slowed down to 17.3% by the end of the third quarter of 2014. The region injected 53,454 tourists to the total arrivals to the country during the month of September, summing up the total arrivals from the region to 450,296 by the end of the period from January to September 2014.
The month of September showed interesting results from the Asia Pacific sub regions, with all sub regions posting double digit growth rates except for North East Asia which recorded a negative growth during the month. North East Asia, which remained as the leading sub region within Asia Pacific, recorded a negative growth of 0.7% in September 2014 compared with that of 2013. Nevertheless, the region ended up with a positive 14.4% increase at the end of the period with the outstanding performance recorded during the first eight months of the year. With a total of 344,463 tourists by the end of September 2014, North East Asia contributed 38.2% to the market shares at the end of the period. South Asia, which was the second largest sub region within Asia Pacific, maintained its market share at 5.3% at the end of September. With a total of 47,875 tourist at the end of the period from January to September 2014, the region registered a strong growth of 18.8% for the period. Followed closely behind was the South East Asia region which contributed 4.6% to market shares. Strongest performance in terms of arrival growth was seen from this sub region with a positive 47.7% increase for the period. Oceania saw an increase of 12.4% in September, leading to a healthy 12.4% growth at the end of the period from January to September 2014. With a total of 16,093 tourists, market share of Oceania was at 1.8% at the end of the period.
