Over 250 Russian tourists visited the Maldives for a month

More than 250 Russian tourists have visited the Maldives archipelago after July 15, when the islands opened to foreign visitors – it is follows from the statistics of the Republic's department of immigration.

According to the ministry, 58 Russian tourists came to the archipelago for the first two weeks of July, and 193 for the first half of August.

To enter the Maldives, tourists do not need a COVID-19 test certificate or quarantine. The only limitation is that they must stay at the same hotel all the entire holiday time.

Over a month, 5,2 thousand foreign tourists arrived in the Maldives. The leaders in terms of numbers are citizens of the UAE, Great Britain and the United States. Russians are in the sixth place.

There are no direct flights from Russian airports to the archipelago yet. As reported, Russian tourists get to the Maldives with two changes, most often in Istanbul and Doha.

As the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina told, tour operators very much hope that the Russian authorities will announce the resumption of flights to the archipelago in advance. Otherwise, they will have difficulties in booking of hotels in the Maldives for the winter season and especially the New Year holidays due to competition with other European markets.

In 2019, 83,4 thousand Russian citizens had holidays on the archipelago, which became a record. Russians were the sixth in terms of the number of foreign tourists.