New Delhi: Amid a diplomatic standoff between India and Maldives, Male’s Tourism Minister Ibrahim Faisal will arrive in India this week in a bid to attract more Indian tourists to the archipelago country.
Until last year, India was among the top tourism markets in the Maldives. However, these numbers have dwindled over the past six months. China has since overtaken India to become the largest tourism market for the Maldives.
Amid this, Faisal will seek to promote the “Welcome India” initiative, aimed at reinforcing the Maldives’ status as a prime holiday destination for Indian travellers, and hold “tourism roadshows” in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru from 30 July to 3 August.
This “strategic campaign” seeks to strengthen tourism ties between the Maldives and India, said sources.
The Maldivian tourism industry saw the decline in Indian tourists following a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Male in January this year. Ministers in President Mohamed Muizzu’s government had made disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lakshadweep visit at the time. The ministers were later suspended. Their comments, however, sparked an uproar among Indians on social media. Many people declared that they were boycotting Maldives as a holiday destination, with some even claiming to have cancelled their scheduled trips to the archipelago nation.
“I want to tell Indians to please be a part of Maldives’ tourism. Our economy depends on tourism,” Faisal told PTI in an interview this May.
Relations between India and Maldives have been rocky, though Muizzu and other leaders from neighbouring countries recently attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as PM in June.
The Maldives economy, reliant on tourism, has been facing major headwinds ever since it was jolted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s debt is set to exceed $1 billion in 2026.
In May, India agreed to roll over a $50 million loan to the Maldives after the Muizzu government made a special request to “secure budgetary support” from New Delhi.
This was viewed as a gesture of goodwill from the Indian side, which had also resumed the export of essential goods to the island nation in April. Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer “sincerely thanked” India for the resumption of the agreement at the time, saying it signifies the “longstanding friendship” between the two countries.
Under President Muizzu, Maldives has inched deeper within China’s orbit with Muizzu picking Beijing for his first official visit overseas.
The Indian government completed the withdrawal of its military personnel from the Maldives this summer. The personnel were tasked with manning three Indian aviation platforms in the nation, including two ALH and a Dornier aircraft used for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief purposes. They have since been replaced with ‘technical’ personnel from India.