In what appears to be a subtle snub to India, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu on Tuesday requested China to send more tourists to his country and regain its position as the top source market for tourist arrivals in Maldives.
India currently occupies the top slot. Muizzu made no reference to India while making this request in his address at the Invest Maldives Forum in Fuzhou, China, on Tuesday morning but it came in the face of a “boycott Maldives” campaign in India that is widely perceived to have an official nod.
“China was our number one market pre-Covid, and it is my request that we intensify efforts for China to regain this position,” Muizzu was quoted as saying by SunOnline, the Maldivian news portal.
The Maldivian President is on a five-day visit to China, his third overseas trip since assuming office in November. He is yet to visit India, which used to be the first foreign visit of Maldivian Presidents.
Breaking a presidential practice that was followed by even former President Abdulla Yameen, who was not seen as pro-India unlike his successor Ibrahim Solih.
In 2019, China accounted for 16.7 per cent of all tourist arrivals in Maldives with 2,84,029 Chinese travelling to the archipelago. With the pandemic, footfalls from China reduced drastically and India began topping the chart in arrivals in Maldives. Last year, 2,09,198 Indians travelled to Maldives. This was 11.1 per cent of all tourist arrivals and China accounted for 10 per cent.
Despite the “boycott Maldives” campaign over the past couple of days after the social media row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lakshadweep visit and the derogatory remarks against him by three Maldivian ministers — who have since been suspended — 3,334 Indians have travelled to the atoll nation between January 1 and 8.
Statistics posted by the Maldivian tourism ministry indicate that tourist arrivals continue apace and the number has already crossed last year’s figures for the first eight days of the month. As many as 45,278 tourists arrived in Maldives between January 1 and 8, nearly 3,000 more than the 42,409 arrivals in the corresponding period last year.
