Over the years, the social media accounts of many Indian celebrities have given us the glimpse of their vacation in Maldives. Inspired by these posts, many Indian tourists opted for Maldives as their vacation destination.

However, the visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lakshadweep islands in the first week of January 2024 and his social media posts on the beautiful locations of Lakshadweep islands led to the netizens comparing Lakshadweep to Maldives.

This made some Maldivian MPs to post some unwarranted comments on India. Subsequently many on social media campaigned for Indian tourists to avoid Maldives as their vacation choice.

This seems to have made an impact on the inflow of Indian tourists to Maldives. In 2024, Indians visiting Maldives declined by around 37.47 per cent. Total Indian tourist arrivals to Maldives declined to 1.30 lakh in 2024 against 2.09 lakh in 2023.

India a dominant player

India has remained a major market for Maldives tourism sector for the past several years with it being among the top 10 markets for the past decade-and-a-half. In fact, India was among the top five markets for Maldives for almost a decade from 2015-2023.

India maintained the number one position in market share of tourist arrivals to Maldives for four years continuously from 2020. India’s market share in total arrivals in Maldives increased from 11.3 per cent in 2020 to 22.1 per cent in 2021. India’s market share decreased to 14.4 per cent and 11.1 per cent in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

In 2024, India occupied the sixth position in total tourist arrivals to Maldives after countries such as China, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.

Available data for the past one-and-a-half decade show that there was a steady increase in the number of Indian tourists visiting Maldives from 2010-2019.

Barring 2021, there was a decline in the numbers in the four years from 2020-2024. A record 2.91 lakh Indian tourists visited Maldives in 2021, recording a growth of 363.45 per cent compared to the Covid-affected 2020.

The year that was

The repercussions of unwarranted comments by a section of Maldivian MPs was visible with the decline in the number of Indians visiting Maldives during the year. The arrivals of Indian tourists to Maldives touched a low of 7,780 in April, which was a decline of almost 55 per cent over the same period of 2023.

However, there was an increase in the number of Indian tourists visiting Maldives towards the end of the year with the number of Indian tourists visiting the island touching a 12-month high of 16,749 in December. In fact, the monthly market share also touched a year-high of 8.2 per cent in December after falling to a low of 4.3 per cent in March.

Amidst the controversy over the comments of some of his MPs, the Maldivian president, Mohamed Muizzu, visited China in January 2024 where he signed a series of agreements, including the one on tourism cooperation. During his visit, he had appealed to China to intensify efforts to send more tourists to his country.

“China was our number one market for tourism pre-Covid, and it is my request that we intensify efforts for China to regain this position,” he had said then.

China, which was in number three position in 2023 in terms of tourists visiting Maldives, reached the number one position in 2024. Around 2.63 lakh Chinese tourists visited Maldives in 2024 against 1.87 tourists in 2023.

Interestingly, the total number of global tourists visiting Maldives reached 2 million in 2024 in the history of Maldives tourism.

On the reasons behind the increase in the number of global tourists visiting Maldives, the Tourism Day special supplement of Maldives Ministry of Tourism said China’s resurgence as a key market has been crucial in bolstering the numbers.

Apart from this, markets such as the UK, Russia and Italy have helped maintain momentum. It also said that established markets such as India, Germany and France maintained commendable market shares throughout the year, it said.

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