India Maldives Row: Modi had promoted tourism here by sharing some beautiful pictures during his visit to Lakshadweep. Regarding this, a leader of Maldives has created a new controversy by making fun of PM Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep. Maldives President Mohammad Muizzu has not agreed to this comment.
Maldives government has taken major action on the controversy over making fun of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep. Maldives government has suspended ministers Mariam Shiuna, Malsha and Hassan Jihan for making derogatory remarks on PM Modi and India. President Mohammad Muizzu had also described his statements as personal.
India had officially raised this matter with the Maldives government. On this, the Maldives government took strict action and suspended Deputy Minister (Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts) Mariyam Shiuna, Deputy Minister (Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation) Hassan Zihan and Deputy Minister (Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts) Malsha.
Apart from this –
If we look at the statistics of Maldives Tourism Ministry, the largest number of tourists traveling here are Indians. Data from the Ministry of Tourism shows that by December 2023, Indian tourists were the largest number of tourists visiting Maldives.
According to the data, till December 13, a total of 17,57,939 tourists from all over the world arrived in the island nation, which was 12.6 percent more than what was recorded in 2022.
The highest number of Indian tourists from any country in the world visiting Maldives was recorded at 2,09,198. After this, 2,09,146 tourists from Russia were registered at second place and 1,87,118 tourists from China were registered at third place.
Citizens of many other big countries of the world have also visited Maldives. About 1,55,730 tourists from UK, 1,35,090 from Germany, 1,18,412 from Italy, 74,575 from America, 49,199 from France, 40,462 from Spain and 37,260 tourists from Switzerland visited Maldives.
Maldives has remained a very special and favorite place to visit for Indian tourists for many years. It is popular among Indians as a tourist spot. Many big and famous personalities often visit here.
If we look at the figures, there was a big benefit from the start of direct flights between India and Maldives in 2018. In the October-December quarter, movement of 51,000 passengers was recorded between the two countries. Next year in 2019, this figure crossed 60 thousand. In the fourth quarter of 2021, this figure had reached 1.15 lakh passengers.
Even during Covid-19, the movement of tourists between India and Maldives did not stop.
Maldives welcomed its tourists by strictly following the rules of Covid protocol. At that time, especially during October to December, India had gone far ahead of this deadly disease.
