World's '6th best island' among 30 economies with most tourists per square mile

By Hoang Vu September 9, 2025 | 10:31 pm PT

Tourists on the beach of Maafushi Island, Maldives in October 2024. Photo by AFP

Maldives, voted world's sixth best island this year by American magazine Travel+Leisure, ranked 10th in a list of 30 countries and territories with the most tourists per square mile.

Maldives, an archipelago of over 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean, with 116 square miles has 17,800 tourists per square mile, according to the Telegraph Travel analysis of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNTWO)'s global tourism statistics.

It records an annual visitor at 2.04 million.

Macau topped the list with 1.4 million tourists per square mile, followed by Monaco and Hong Kong.

The Maldives is famous for its over-water bungalows, luxurious private island resorts, and stunning white-sand beaches with crystal-clear turquoise waters.

Tourism remains the Maldives' largest source of foreign exchange, with 2 million visitors recorded last year.

Maldives, which was named the world's best island last year, was pushed to the sixth position this year based on 657,000 votes cast by readers of Travel+Leisure.