Calls for Indian travelers to boycott the Maldives is “absolutely” helping Sri Lanka’s travel industry, the country’s Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said Wednesday.
“The Maldives issue is … helping us,” Fernando told CNBC, referencing a social media row in January that resulted in a sharp drop in Indian visitors to the Maldives this year.
India was the Maldives’ largest source market in 2023. But now it sits in 6th place, behind arrivals from China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, according to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Tourism.
By contrast, nearly 34,400 Indian travelers went to Sri Lanka in January, more than double the 13,759 that visited in January last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Arrivals in the first quarter of 2024 outpaced the same time period in 2023, despite a dip in April caused by a visa controversy that saw Sri Lankan visa temporarily double in price.
Fernando also noted the…
