World's most beautiful archipelago welcomes nearly 900,000 foreign arrivals year to date

By Hoang Vu May 14, 2025 | 02:55 pm PT

Tourists disembark from a seaplane at a resort in Baa Atoll, Maldives, September 2023. Photo by AFP

The Maldives, named the world's most beautiful string of islands by Travel + Leisure magazine readers, has received 893,575 tourists between Jan. 1 and May 12, marking an 8.1% year-on-year increase, largely driven by arrivals from China.

China remained the leading source of tourists to the Maldives, with 101,000 visitors, followed by Russia (96,000) and the U.K. (92,000), according to the local Ministry of Tourism.

The rest of the top 10 sources of foreign arrivals are Italy, Germany, India, France, the U.S., Switzerland, and Poland.

In 2024, the Maldives, an archipelago of over 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean, was named the world's most beautiful among 25 best islands in Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards.

The country recorded 2 million arrivals in 2024.