The Tourism Ministry has released the tourist arrival figures after concealing the number of visitors from Israel.

The figures for January have now been publicized, but the ministry is yet to publicize the figures for February and March.

Previous figures have a section showing the number of tourists from Israel, but the report for January did not include this section.

The ministry earlier listed Israel and Turkey as East Mediterranean European countries. But the January list replaced Israel with Cyprus.

The number of Israeli tourists was listed under Other East Mediterranean countries. This means the total number of Israeli tourists is not available.

However, the Maldives Immigration releases the details of all tourists visiting the Maldives. So far, they have released figures for January and February.

According to the Immigration statistics, 156 Israeli tourists arrived in the Maldives in the first two months of the year. There were 97 Israeli tourists in January and 59 in February.

Around 1435 Israeli passport holders visited last year. The total number of Israelis who have visited since October 2023 is 2196.

The government has promised to ban entry with Israeli passports. The decision was made on June 2, but no steps have been taken so far.

Attorney General (AG) Ahmed Usham later said a blanket ban on Israeli citizens was not advisable.

Meanwhile, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s bill on banning Israeli passports has been stalled in the People's Majlis.

The ruling People's National Congress (PNC) MPs prefer imposing a ban on Israeli government and military officials rather than banning the Israeli passport.