THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Don’t blame it on the ISRO Espionage Case. Tourist arrivals from Maldives to Kerala which flip-flopped over the years have hit the nadir, with the travel industry expecting a 6o per cent drop in medical tourist arrivals from the Indian Ocean archipelago.
The number of Maldivians who visited the state in 2014 and 2015 went down 7.94 and 15.74 per cent, respectively. However, their numbers witnessed a quantum leap in the next two years - 248.79 per cent in 2016 and 11.95 per cent in 2017, according to the Tourism Department’s statistics. But things were back to square one in 2018 as the tourist arrival nose-dived to over 60 per cent due to a host of factors including political and economical.
The department is assessing the drop in the tourist arrival from Male in 2018 and as per the preliminary assessment, there will be a minimum drop of over 40 per cent. The major stakeholders like the hospitals said the drop will be anywhere between 60-70 per cent.
According to a leading city-based hospital, Maldivians used to come down here regularly for medical purposes. But the recent change of guard in Male had soured the age-old bilateral ties with New Delhi and the Indian Government was upset with Maldives’ growing ‘closeness’ towards China.
There have been some visa regulations and even the Indians who were offered jobs in the Maldives had been hit by the undeclared visa regulations with the job aspirants here as well receiving messages that “political issues” are behind the visa delays, say industry experts. Further, they have enhanced their health capabilities recently as part of making its health sector stronger.
E M Najeeb, Confederation of Tourism Industry Kerala president, said earlier there had been only flight to Thiruvananthapuram from Maldives. Now, they have regular flight services to major cities in the country, including Kochi, Chennai and Bengaluru. Some of the hospitals here even have special menu cards for Maldivian cuisine served at their in-house restaurants.
The Maldivians who arrive here will not go on a spending spree, unlike other foreign nationals. Nonetheless, there was a local economy based on their visit and spending. The percentage of share of Maldivians in the total foreign tourist arrivals in Kerala was 1.31 per cent in 2012 which eventually went upto 3.55 in 2017.