2024-04-19 10:08:11
Male: Maldivian leaders had launched a campaign against India. But the effect of his anti-India campaign now seems to be backfiring. A large number of Indians used to visit Maldives. But now a big decline is being seen in it. Only 34,847 Indians have arrived in Maldives in the January quarter this year, compared to 56,208 travelers in the same quarter last year. That means the number of people going to Maldives from India has declined by 38 percent. This number is less than the first quarter of 2019, when 36,053 Indian travelers visited Maldives. Indians were the first biggest market from 2021 to 2023 after the Corona pandemic. This decline has been seen due to the boycott by Indians in response to President Mohammad Muizzu’s ‘India Out’ campaign. PM Modi had visited Lakshadweep in early January, after which Maldivian ministers had made controversial remarks. After his anti-India remarks, a campaign to boycott Maldives was started on social media. However, at that time it was believed that all this would be limited to social media only. But after three months now the figures show that Indian people are not going to Maldives.
Such was the trend of Indian tourists
India, which was the largest partner in Maldives’ tourism in December 2023, has seen a major drop in its ranking. China is now number one in terms of tourists. Even before Corona, most of the tourists coming to Maldives were from China. According to data released by the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives, less than 1 lakh Indians visited Maldives in 2018. Whereas this year itself 2.83 lakh Chinese tourists had reached Maldives. The number of Indians increased to 1.6 lakh in 2019, while the number of Chinese tourists remained stable. In 2021, 2.91 lakh Indians had reached Maldives, which is a huge number at that time as there were travel restrictions across the world due to Corona. Only 2238 Chinese came to Maldives this year.
Maldives Controversy: Due to which Lakshadweep Vs Maldives controversy started, now Maryam Shiuna has apologized
How many tourists from where in Maldives now?
Now most of the tourists arriving in Maldives are from China, UK, Russia, Italy, Germany and India. Till April 16, 74,833 Chinese travelers have arrived in Maldives. At the same time, 70,064 UK citizens, 69,432 Russian tourists, 63,311 Italian tourists, 55,233 German tourists and 39,034 Indian tourists have arrived. India, which was at number one in 2023, has now reached 6th rank. China’s ranking was third last year, which has now reached first.