The Maldives welcomed 190,774 tourists in October 2026, up 0.2% on the 190,445 recorded in October 2025, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Counting business visitors and cruise passengers, total international visitor arrivals for October were 194,039, against 192,398 a year earlier, a rise of 0.9%.

Year to date

From January to October 2026, the Maldives received 1,762,751 tourists, about 1.76 million. That is 3.5% below the 1,826,934 tourists in the same ten months of 2025. Including business and cruise visitors, total arrivals were 1,797,060, down 2.9%.

Top source markets

The ministry's top markets for 2026 so far, counted to 1 November, are:

  • China: 332,186 (18.8%)

  • Russia: 258,120 (14.6%)

  • United Kingdom: 136,527 (7.7%)

  • Germany: 120,491 (6.8%)

  • Italy: 106,068 (6.0%)

  • India: 102,699 (5.8%)

Australia (41,990), the United States (41,575), France (41,448) and Spain (37,010) complete the top ten.

The 2026 target

The government is targeting 2.5 million tourist arrivals in 2026, the ministry said in June. Reaching that would take about 737,000 more tourists in November and December. In the same two months of 2025, the Maldives received 419,582 tourists.

Planning a trip? Read our Travel Maldives guide.