Muizzu's mess with PM Modi proved costly, Maldives tourism in 'bad shape', only so many Indians arrived in January

highlights

Maldivian President Muizzu came to power on the basis of anti-India campaign.

In the latest report of Maldives Tourism, India has now come to 5th place in terms of visitors.

New Delhi. Messing with India cost the neighboring country Maldives dearly. Maldives, which runs anti-India campaign, used to be a favorite tourist destination for Indians till a month ago. According to the latest report of Maldives Tourism, in the last three weeks of data, India has moved from first to fifth place in terms of tourism. After spewing venom against India, Boycott Maldives started trending on Twitter. Meanwhile, when PM Modi promoted Lakshya Deep Tourism, there was a flood of tourists on this island located in the neighborhood of Maldives.

Official data released by the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives has revealed that there has been a significant decline in the number of Indian travelers visiting there. Data shows that more than 2 lakh Indians visited Maldives annually in the last three years, the highest from any country after the Covid-19 pandemic. Now fewer Indians are reaching this tourist hotspot.

Russia becomes Maldives tourism hot-spot
According to statistics, till January 28 this year, more than 1.74 lakh tourists came to Maldives, out of which only 13,989 were Indians. Russia tops the chart with 18,561 tourists from the country visiting Maldives, followed by Italy (18,111), China (16,529) and UK (14,588). Germany is in sixth place, followed by the United States, France, Poland and Switzerland. More than 17 lakh tourists visited the island of Maldives in 2023, of which a maximum of 2,09,198 were Indians. After this, 2,09,146 tourists from Russian and 1,87,118 tourists from China reached Maldives.

India was number-1 in Maldives tourism since 2018The number of Indian visitors to Maldives was more than 2.4 lakh in 2022 and more than 2.11 lakh in 2021. Maldives was also one of the few countries open to international tourists during the pandemic and around 63,000 Indians visited Maldives during that period. In 2018, India was the fifth largest source of tourist arrivals to Maldives with 90,474 visitors. In 2019, India reached the second position with 1.66 lakh Indians. According to the data, Maldives received more than 1.74 lakh tourists till January 28 this year, of which only 13,989 were Indians. Russia tops the chart with 18,561 tourists from the country visiting Maldives, followed by Italy (18,111), China (16,529) and UK (14,588).