Tourist arrivals to Maldives up 6%’; Chinese visitors down 12%

The Maldives recorded a tourist arrivals growth of 5.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) for July 2016, increasing to 110,432 tourists, despite setbacks in the Chinese economy.

Arrivals from Asia and the Pacific recorded a 1.7 percent decline YoY to 60,323 tourists, with the largest market China contracting 12.2 percent YoY to 36,456 tourists. 

Arrivals from Japan declined 1.1 percent YoY to 3,255 tourists and Korean arrivals fell by 1 percent YoY to 2,063 tourists, while Thailand became the brighter spot in the Far East markets, growing 45.6 percent YoY to 1,868 tourists.

The Indian market grew by 41.7 percent YoY to 4,783 tourists, while Sri Lanka, where many budget promotional packages were available, contributed with 1,901 tourists, growing 44.3 percent YoY.
Arrivals from Australia recorded strong growth, increasing 12.2 percent YoY to 2,211 tourists.

Regional traffic from Europe increased 11.3 percent to 37,859 tourists, with the British market growing 10.1 percent YoY to 7,898 tourists, while the German market grew by  2.5 percent YoY to 6,008 tourists, unfazed by the fallout from Brexit.

Italian arrivals grew by 28.3 percent YoY to 3,257 tourists, and Spanish arrivals grew by 19 percent YoY to 2,392 tourists as well.
Despite the downturn in the Russian economy, Russian arrivals grew by 7.4 percent YoY to 3,415 tourists.

The increase of terrorist activities in Europe may have contributed to increased tourism arrivals to destinations such as the Maldives, despite the archipelago also receiving some flak over political and security concerns earlier this year.

Meanwhile, arrivals from the Middle East increased 51.4 percent YoY to 7,242 tourists with Saudi Arabia remaining the largest market with 3,247 tourists, and recording a 51.4 percent growth YoY.
The Americas market grew 14.5 percent YoY to 3,960 arrivals, with arrivals from the US recording a 23.9 percent growth YoY to 2,657 tourists.
For the first 8 months of 2016, the Maldives recorded just a 2.3 percent YoY growth to 730,353 tourists due to the decline observed in the second quarter.

Asia and the Pacific market declined 2.6 percent YoY to 341,577 tourists, the European market grew 6.4 percent YoY to 327,099 tourists, the Middle East market grew 19.4 percent YoY to 28,401 tourists and the Americas market grew 3.8 percent YoY to 27,723 tourists.
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Airline sheds staff amid falling Chinese visitor numbers

Xinhua: The largest privately owned airline in the Maldives atolls, Mega Maldives, announced mass layoffs over the continued slide in Chinese tourists to the archipelago, local media reported yesterday.

Mega Maldives, which brings in almost 30 percent of Chinese tourists to the Maldives, said the China-Maldives market has dropped by almost 11 percent till June this year. 
The airline said it would immediately be making 65 positions redundant and put on hold 50 positions that were due to be filled this year.

In addition to the slowdown in the China market, the airline also said the delay in diversification of its routes which included South Africa, India, Thailand and Europe has contributed to the reduction in revenue.