Russia continues to be the leading source market for the Maldives with a market share of 13,1% - 28 873 arrivals in January and 1 week in February. Most tour operators this year note an increased interest for the Maldivian destination and an increase of the diversity of air transportation.

In 2022 the tourist flow from the Russian Federation to the Maldives was 8,38% less than in the record year 2021. The Maldives has in practice entered the category of mass destinations, surpassing the results of pre-Covid 2019 by 142%.

This year, 1,5 million tourists have holidays with the tour operator Fun&Sun. By the end of 2023, the company plans to send 2,5 million tourists.

The Russians have taken the second place in terms of the total tourist flow to the Maldives since the beginning of the year. The first position was taken by Indian tourists.

The launch of the Azur air charter program to the Maldives has allowed tour operators to reduce prices for tour packages,

The place of the leading market of the Maldives was occupied by India, the second one - by Russia. The popularity of the resort is explained by the presence of direct flights of Aeroflot, which has been operating on the route since the beginning of 2021.

The tour operator Anex Tour announced the start of sales of package tours based on Azur air direct flights from Moscow to the Maldives. The flights from Vnukovo will be operated from October 29 to March 29 twice a week.

The sale of popular resorts on direct flights of Aeroflot was announced by the tour operator Tez-tour. According to the press service of the tour operator, the sale of tours to Thailand and the Maldives is opened on the basis of direct regular daily flights of Aeroflot.

May 2022 in the Maldives should show better results in terms of Russian tourist traffic than April.

Aeroflot Airlines has returned direct flights to the Maldives to its schedule. Moscow-Malé flights SU 0320 have been announced daily since May 13. The flights are planned to be operated by Airbus A-330.

In April, there was a clear trend towards the return of wealthy Russians to their usual vacation in the Maldives. Tour operators record a bright - 80-300% - growth of sales of tours. The reasons are the stabilization of the exchange rate, clarity of the situation with flights and payments.

Russia resumed flights with Bali from March 14

At the end of 2021, 222 424 tourists from Russia visited the Maldives. This figure is 2,7 times higher than the previous record of 2019 - every sixth tourist on the islands turned out to be Russian.

Tour operator Pegas Touristik has announced a flight program to the Maldives from St. Petersburg. The flights will be operated by Nordwind airline once a week.

The flow of tourists from Russia to the Maldives in 2021 more than tripled - from 63,3 to 194,5 thousand and 2,3 times compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when it amounted to 83 thousand.

In sales of the November holidays’ tours Egypt was in the first place. Turkey was in the second place. The third place was taken by the UAE. Also, the Dominican Republic, Maldives, Cuba, Mexico, Hungary and Cyprus are in high demand.

For the nine months of 2021, Russians made 5,24 million trips to open and popular countries for the purpose of tourism. The volume of outbound tourist traffic is far behind the indicators of 2019.

In 2021, vacationers in the Maldives are much more likely than before to stay not in five-star hotels, but in budget accommodation facilities.

In 2021, Russian tourists massively fell in love with resorts for the rich, the demand for vacations in the Maldives and Seychelles has grown significantly.

Tours for the autumn season, 2021, according to the observations of the tourist experts, are quite in demand. In general, the TOP-10 most popular foreign destinations for the autumn season this year, as per the data of tour operators, includes Turkey, UAE, Maldives, Greece, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Abkhazia and Croatia.

This season, the tour operator Russian Express has strengthened its partnership with flydubai. In addition to the guaranteed block of seats from several Russian cities to Dubai, the tour operator also took a block of seats for the Dubai-Male segment and offers package tours to the Maldives with a connection in Dubai on the basis of flydubai flights from 8 Russian regions.

Tour packages to the Maldives for the May holidays are practically sold out, tour operators say. The rate of summer bookings is more ahead of last year's figures due to affordable prices.

The range of countries where a tourist can go from April to June is significantly limited and there are few alternatives in terms of price / service ratio as in Turkey.

Flights and tourist traffic from Russia amidst pandemic (weekly update)