Maldives records double-digit tourist arrival growth during first quarter of 2013
10 Apr 2013, 8:50 PM
Neil Merrett
Tourism arrivals to the Maldives during the first quarter of 2013 were up 14.6 percent over the same period last year, as declining Western European demand failed to offset growing interest in the destination from Asia and Eastern Europe.
According to official statistics, 293,112 tourists arrived in the country between January to March 2013. During March alone, 99,498 visitors were recorded in total – an increase of 30.1 percent on a year-on-year basis.
Over the last month, the tourism industry has faced several potential boycotts as a result of negative headlines, such as the controversial flogging sentence handed to a 15 year-old rape victim who admitted to having consensual sex with an unnamed man during a police investigation.
So far over two million people have signed an online petition backing a selective tourism boycott by Avaaz.org. The petition aims to launch a media campaign targeting local resort businesses to pressure key decision makers to push for legal reforms in how sexual offences are dealt with.
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