MALDIVES

Tourism is the largest economic industry in the Maldives, as it plays an important role in earning foreign exchange revenues and employing 25,000 people in the tertiary sector of the country. The archipelago of the Maldives is the main source of attraction to many tourists visiting the island country. Chinese entrepreneurs have been swiftly amassing assets connected to the tourism sector in the Maldives. Given that tourism is the primary economic driver in the Maldives, this trend is affording the Chinese substantial influence over the nation’s economy.^[1]

The tourism industry is especially vulnerable to climate change: as one of the island nations expected to be most impacted by climate change, sea level rise and subsequent increased extreme weather, coastal flooding, and coral bleaching damage the natural attractions that bring many of the tourists to the country. During the tenure of former President Yameen, the Maldives’ indebtedness to China escalated to an amount equivalent to one-fifth of the nation’s GDP. Concurrently, China assumed a pivotal role in the tourism sector, a crucial component of the Maldivian economy. ^[2] The Maldives is currently facing mounting pressure to fulfill its international debt obligations to China, exacerbated by an economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has severely impacted the country’s tourism sector, which serves as its primary source of foreign exchange earnings, supporting a population of 400,000 residing on 198 of its 1,190 islands.^[3]