In the first half of 2019, the flow of tourists from Russia to the Maldives grew by almost 12%. June month, thanks to the lucrative offers of airlines and hotels, showed an increase of 31.5%. Meanwhile, at present time the Russians are already actively booking tours for the New Year on the Maldives.
Despite the economic situation, the demand in the “luxury” segment among Russian consumers of tourist products remains stable, and the Maldives are one of the popular destinations.
According to the Ministry of Tourism of the Maldives, for the period from January to June 2019 42,929 Russian tourists arrived in the country to rest. This is 11.9% more than in this period a year earlier.
For the first half of the year, Russia is the 6-th in the ranking of the largest source market of tourists in the country, with a share of 5% of the total foreign tourist traffic to these islands. This is a stable result over the past years. Ahead are such countries as China (140,265 tourists), India (82,140), Italy (75,376), Germany (69,237) and the United Kingdom (64,792 tourists).
At the same time, June 2019 was a breakthrough for the Russian market on the Maldives: according to official statistics, 4,793 Russians came to rest on the islands in June. Thus, the increase in the number of Russian tourist arrivals in this month was 31.5% compared with this month in 2018.
The sales statistics of tour operators are consistent with the Maldivian statistics, and for a number of companies it shows more outstanding growth.
In particular, the specialists of Russian Express tour operator noted in June a significant increase in sales of tours to the Maldives by at least 30% in annual terms. “This month two factors coincided at the same time. Maldivian hotels traditionally proposed significant discounts for the low season and the airlines offered attractive prices for flights,” explains Anna Filatovskaya, the director of the advertising and PR department of Russian Express.
“Comparing June 2018 and June 2019, we can note a threefold increase in the number of orders for the Maldives,” ANEX Tour operators say.
In Russian Express the main sales now are for departures in August and September, but the company already has a sufficient number of orders for the New Year period. There are even bookings for February and March of the next year.
Now the prices from ANEX Tour for the New Year period start from 333,600 Rubles (4,746 Euros) for two persons in 5-star hotel on HB basis.
