'Boycott Maldives' impact: Indian tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka surpass Maldives

Most Indian tourists appear to be heading to Sri Lanka after a diplomatic row between India and the Maldives. As a result of this, Sri Lanka received more tourists than Maldives in January 2024. Male-based news outlet Adhadhu reported that tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka lagged behind the Maldives over the past four years. But in January, Sri Lanka surpassed Maldives in tourist arrivals. Last month, 192,385 tourists visited the Maldives, while 208,253 tourists visited Sri Lanka - up by over 1 lakh recorded in last January.

In January, a row broke out between Male and New Delhi following some comments by Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India. Indian tourists reacted sharply and started a 'boycott Maldives' campaign.

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

Adhadhu said a massive surge in Indian tourists visiting was one reason behind the 100 percent increase in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in January. In January last year, 13,759 Indians had visited Sri Lanka but that number jumped 2.5 times to 34,399 this January. While the number of Indian tourists to Sri Lanka surged, Maldives recorded a significant drop from 17,029 last January to 15,006 this year.

India also emerged as the top source of tourists to Sri Lanka in January.

Meanwhile, the Maldives have witnessed a 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 slipped to fifth position in the last three weeks of January, 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 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.

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 in 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.

(With inputs from PTI)