Baani Publishes Report Highlighting the Impact on Maldivian Tourism Post Global Events
Monday 28th of November 2022
The last two years have seen a number of geopolitical shifts on the international front, with countries facing the repercussions of a pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. Following these two events, the Maldivian tourism industry took a major blow with numbers plummeting to an all-time low in recent years.
Titled the ‘Impact of Non-Arrival of Chinese Tourists to Maldives’ the report published by the Baani Centre for International Policy explores the response of the Maldivian tourism industry after China closed its international borders during the uncertain times of the pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic, China was among the highest top-source markets for the Maldives, continuously ruling the charts as the number 1. This is evident from the high numbers seen in 2019 with 284,000 Chinese tourists vacationing in the destination. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s decision to close its borders led to a dramatic collapse of Chinese tourists with 2020 reporting as less as 34,000 from the country. With such a negative turnout of events, Maldives had to quickly retrench and respond effectively to remain afloat during the frightening times.
Changes in government policies made the difference on numerous occasions such as early re-opening of borders in July 2020 and industrial flexibility on the part of resorts and guesthouses. Moreover, marketing policies were also driven to other prominent markets, particularly the Indian market. The Maldives-India travel bubble in 2021 played a significant role in boosting arrivals from the country as many had to stay in the Maldives for quarantine purposes before departing for the UAE. It was also during this time that the Russian market boomed with other Eastern European markets displaying similar traits of growth.
Following this trajectory, Maldives has made notable progress in sealing the void left by Chinese tourists and replacing it with other emerging markets by early 2022. Nevertheless, unbeknownst to the destination another storm was brewing and making its way to wreak havoc again. Early 2022 saw the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, which again had negative implications for the arrival numbers, especially since Russia and to a lesser extent Ukraine, were dominating a greater share of the arrival numbers.
The Russian-Ukraine conflict prevented tourists travelling from the markets and the first and second quarters of 2022 bore the full brunt of these sudden shifts. Despite this, the Russian tourism market was able to rebound back soon enough and now reins as the second top-source market for the Maldives. Unfortunately for Ukraine, a similar fate was not seen.
Despite these shocking developments in the international fora, Maldives has remained vigilant and robust in its tourism sector and with the help of responsive government policy has managed to maneuver the changing tides quite successfully. This is further cemented by the fact that the island nation won the ‘World’s Leading Destination’ for three consecutive years in spite of all the international fallouts in the past three years.
