Tourism in Maldives, famous for its beautiful beaches and luxury tourism, has taken a big hit from India. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives, the number of Indians visiting Maldives has decreased significantly. Three weeks ago Indians were third in the world in terms of trips to the Maldives, which has now slipped to fifth.
Chinese tourists are the third number
Indian tourists are very important for Maldives as a large number of people from India visit Maldives every year. In the year 2023, the contribution of Indians to the tourism market of Maldives was 11%. But after the recent controversy, the number of Indian tourists visiting Maldives has drastically reduced.
According to the Maldives Tourism website, Indian tourists were the third largest number of tourists visiting the Maldives in early 2024 with a market share of 7.1%. At that time, China was not even in the top 10 countries in the list of tourists coming to Maldives. But after the India-Maldives dispute, the tourism demography of Maldives has changed a lot. China has now replaced India meaning that Chinese tourists are the third largest number of tourists visiting the Maldives. Britain is in fourth place after China.
India suffered a big blow
The decline in Indian tourists visiting the Maldives comes amid India’s ongoing diplomatic tensions with the Maldives in which Maldivian deputy ministers made objectionable comments on pictures and videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep.
In early January, the Prime Minister visited Lakshadweep and while sharing pictures of the beautiful beaches there, he urged people to visit Lakshadweep. In response to PM Modi’s tweet, three Deputy Ministers of Maldives used insulting language and said that Lakshadweep has no competition with Maldives.
After his tweet, people got angry on social media and people started boycotting Maldives. People started saying that they would rather go to Lakshadweep than Maldives. Seeing the growing controversy, the Maldivian government suspended its deputy ministers but the matter did not subside and people continued to boycott the Maldives.
Also read this Good news for India, this country has become a hurdle in the way of Maldives and China
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