Amid diplomatic row, Maldives sees massive drop in Indian tourists in first 3 weeks of January

Amid a diplomatic row with New Delhi, the Maldives have witnessed a sharp decline in the number of Indian tourists, who till recently topped the list of visitors to the island nation. From being the top tourist group visiting the Maldives, Indians have slipped to fifth position in the last three weeks, according to the data analysed by news agency PTI. 

In the last three years, over 2 lakh Indians visited Maldives annually - the highest from any country post-Covid. However, India's contribution which was highest till recently has slipped to the fifth position. According to the statistics, Maldives received over 1.74 lakh tourists till January 28 this year, of which only 13,989 were Indians.

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Russia topped the chart with 18,561 tourists from the country visiting Maldives, followed by Italy (18,111), China (16,529) and the UK (14,588). Germany is at the sixth spot followed by the USA, France, Poland and Switzerland.

Over 17 lakh tourists visited the island nation in 2023, of which the maximum were Indians (2,09,198) followed by Russians (2,09,146) and Chinese (1,87,118). The number of Indian visitors to Maldives was more than 2.4 lakh in 2022 and over 2.11 lakh in 2021. 

Earlier this month, three Maldivian ministers made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who pitched Lakshadweep as a tourist destination.

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Following the remarks, Indians called for boycotting of Maldives. Many tourists claimed that they have cancelled their scheduled trips to the Maldives because of the ministers' derogatory comments against Prime Minister Modi and India. Joining the 'boycott campaign', EaseMyTrip, an online travel aggregator, suspended all flight bookings to the island nation on its website "in solidarity" with India.

Telugu megastar Nagarjuna also cancelled his trips to the Maldives. "I was supposed to leave on January 17 for the Maldives for a holiday," he said in a conversation with composer M M Keeravani.

"I cancelled the tickets because whatever they have said or the statements they have made were not healthy at all, and it's not right, and he is our Prime Minister. He is leading 1.5 billion people. He is the leader of 1.5 billion people and whatever they treated is not right," the superstar said.  

The Maldives is home to nearly 1,200 tiny coral islands that stretch along a length of 871 kilometres.

(With inputs from PTI)