Over 2 lakh Indians visited Maldives in the last 3 years: reveals data

Over 2 lakh Indians c to the Maldives each year over the last three years, the most of any nation after the COVID-19 pandemic, data from Maldives Tourism Ministry says. This comes amid calls from various quarters to forgo travel to the island nation in the wake of a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

The Maldives Tourism Ministry data shows that in 2023, the island nation welcomed over 17 lakh tourists, of whom over 2,09,198 were Indian. The next most common nationalities after Indians were Russians (2,09,146) and Chinese (1,87,118).

In 2022, over 2.4 lakh Indian tourists visited the Maldives, compared to 2.11 lakh tourists in 2021. One of the few nations that allowed foreign visitors during the pandemic was the Maldives, where approximately 63,000 Indians traveled at that time.

With 90,474 visitors, India ranked as the fifth-largest country of origin for tourists visiting the Maldives in 2018. India ranked second in 2019 with 1.66 lakh Indian tourists visiting the nation.

But this popular tourist destination for Indians is currently experiencing criticism after three Maldivian cabinet ministers made disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter’s visit to Lakshadweep last week.

Social media users claimed that the controversy surrounding the trending hashtag “Boycott Maldives” was the reason behind their cancellation of planned trips to the Maldives.

Earlier, amidst the boycott Maldives campaign online, tour company EaseMyTrip had chosen to suspend all reservations for flights to the Maldives in response to disparaging remarks made by certain ministers, who are now suspended, about India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding his recent visit to Lakshadweep –