Russia and Italy Lead Early 2026 Arrivals as Maldives Diversifies Source Markets
New arrivals data for the first week of January 2026 shows the Maldives welcomed 49,625 visitors between January 1 and January 7 — a 13% increase over the 43,903 arrivals in the same week of 2025, or roughly 7,089 tourists per day.
Russia led the pack as the top source market for the week, accounting for 10,548 tourists (21.3% of arrivals), followed by Italy with 7,510 visitors (15.1%), the United Kingdom with 3,386 (6.8%), Germany with 2,980 (6%), and the United States with 1,632 (3.3%).
Zooming out across the full year, China has held its position as the single largest individual source market, with Russia rising to become the second-largest overall. Europe as a region remains the dominant source of visitors to the Maldives, while arrivals from India have declined notably compared with prior years.
Tourism officials have framed this diversification as a strength: a wider spread of source markets reduces the destination's exposure to any single country's economic or travel-policy swings — a lesson underscored by the disruption Middle East transit routes caused earlier in the year.