Steep decline in Chinese tourist arrivals continues
As of August this year, Chinese arrivals have fallen by -11.5 percent, prompting Mega Maldives Airlines, which pioneered direct flights to China, to downsize and freeze hiring plans.
16 Oct 2016, 9:00 AM
A steep decline in the number of Chinese holidaymakers, the largest tourist market for the Maldives, continued in August with an -11.3 percent fall in arrivals.
Total arrivals, however, increased by 1.9 percent compared to August 2015, according to statistics released by the tourism ministry on Thursday, a month later than it was expected to be made public.
After growing exponentially from 2010 onward to capture a market share of 30 percent, Chinese arrivals peaked in 2014 with about 364,000 visitors and declined for the first time in 2015 by -1.1 percent.
As of August this year, Chinese arrivals have fallen by -11.5 percent. Some 260,491 Chinese tourists visited the Maldives from January to August, down from 230,437 last year. However, Chinese tourists still represent a market share of 27.3 percent.
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