The number of Chinese tourists searching for travel information on the Maldives has doubled.
Chinese news agencies state that the number of searches increased after the Agreement on Mutual Visa Exemption with the Maldives officially came into effect. The agreement was signed on January 2022 but the implementation of the agreement was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information published by China’s travel search engine Qunar shows that the number of searches for the Maldives has increased by 126% while the number of reservations has doubled compared in February. The number of searches made using trip.com has also doubled.
China was the top source market for tourist arrivals in the Maldives before the COVID-19 outbreak. As such, 284,029 tourists arrived in the Maldives from China in 2019. However, tourists from China stopped visiting the Maldives due to the country's travel measures.
In January, China's first flight with 198 tourists arrived following the easing of measures to control the spread of COVID-19. Statistics show that 8,051 tourists have visited the Maldives so far this year, and China is currently the 8th top source market.