Miranda Johnson 
Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives welcomed its inaugural flight from Hangzhou, China today. The flight to Hangzhou departed from Malé on 13th September and Maldivian welcomed the first arrivals from Hangzhou to Maldives this morning around 0615 hrs with 200 passengers. Airbus A321 aircraft will serve this route once a week. At present Maldivian operates to Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an, Nanjing, and Wuhan.
The Maldives ranks among the top travel destinations for Chinese holidaymakers. Maldives had seen a significant boom in tourism from the Chinese market for the past four years
Despite the slight lows in recent months: visitors for the first half of 2017 was recorded as 141,495, a drop of 10.3%, compared to last year’s at 157,764, China remains the largest market for the Maldives’ tourism industry.
As per recent statistics, the number of tourists to the Maldives increased in September. The average length of stay decreased from 6.4 to 5.3 days, but increased by 2% for nights in September, while the occupancy had also improved to 64%.
The government is committed to gradually boost Maldives tourism. The government targets to bring in 1.4 million tourists. Last year, Maldives also announced plans to host a major annual tourism fair over the next four years to bring in 2 million tourists and increase the revenue up to 3.5 billion dollars.
