The governments of United States and the United Kingdom have issued advisories to respective travelers to the Maldives, noting they may face threats related to terror incidents due to civil unrest at tourist locations, transportation hubs, local government facilities and shopping areas.
US government has warned that terrorist groups may conduct attacks with little to no warning, which are likely to occur on remote islands. It was advised by the US government to its nationals to obtain assistance from the US embassy located in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Earlier, it was reported that the UK government had come out with similar travel advisory tied to the Maldives.
The advisory said that terrorists may try to target the Maldives, and highlighted past terror incidents like the assassination attempt on former President Mohamed Nasheed, who was attacked with an improvised explosive device (IED) on May 6, 2021.
There have been other attacks as well, including an arson attack on a police speedboat in Gan island and knife attacks against three foreigners in Hulhumale’.
Furthermore, radical elements disrupted Yoga celebrations conducted at the Maldives National Football Stadium conducted by the Indian High Commission on June 2022. The mob overran the venue shouting slogans and waving flags.
While two of the largest nations have released their advisories with possible threats in the Maldives for their respective nationals, the two country are also among the top source markets to the Maldives.
As of July 2, UK is the third ranking source market to the Maldives with an annual arrival total of 80,497 so far while US ranked seventh with 38,978 arrivals so far.
Following the advisories, it is likely that the momentum from these markets to the Maldives may be noticeably affected, but to what extent and for how long, is uncertain right now.
The Maldivian government earlier announced a visitor target of 1.8 million for 2023 – in annual terms – which it had revised to hike the figure close to 1.9 million in light of Chinese traveler market resumption and significant growth in the arrivals from other markets.
As of July 2, the total number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives stood at 934,317 which was only 65,683 shy of hitting the 1 millionth mark.