More than 1.5 million tourists visited the Maldives by September this year, statistics have shown.

According to figures from Immigration, 132,795 tourists visited the country last month alone.

The largest number of tourists so far this year came from China, followed by Russia and the UK.

India, which was the largest source market for the last two years, is currently ranked sixth.

Number of Indian tourists each year

• 2018 - 90,474 tourists
• 2019 - 166,030 tourists
• 2020 - 62,960 tourists
• 2021 - 291,787 tourists
• 2022 - 241,382 tourists
• 2023 - 208,430 tourists (by December 26)

The number of Indian tourists began declining after three deputy ministers insulted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media.

The ministers were suspended, but Indian activists launched a massive campaign to boycott Maldives tourism.