Resorts continue to accommodate the majority of visitors to the Maldives, with 68 per cent of tourists staying at resort properties so far this year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism and Environment.

The latest figures show that 562,956 visitors arrived in the Maldives as of mid-March, representing a 5.1 per cent increase compared to the 535,781 arrivals recorded during the same period last year.

Of the total tourists recorded during the period, 378,850 visitors stayed at resorts, accounting for 68.4 per cent of arrivals. Guesthouses hosted 146,351 tourists, while 16,061 visitors stayed in hotels and 11,744 tourists travelled on safari vessels.

Statistics also show that China remains the leading source market with 86,464 tourist arrivals so far this year. Russia ranked second with 66,960 visitors, followed by the United Kingdom with 53,077 arrivals, Italy with 52,632 and Germany with 35,811 tourists.

Although the average number of daily arrivals exceeded 6,000 earlier in the year, the figure has recently declined to around 4,000 visitors per day, partly due to disruptions affecting travel routes through the Middle East.

Last year, the Maldives welcomed more than two million tourists, and the Government has set a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by the end of this year.