Tourism is important to the economy of Maldives: tourism receipts constituted 79.6 per cent of Maldives’ exports in 2013 (World Bank 2016a). Strong performance in the tourism sector in 2014, with a 7 per cent year-on-year increase in visitor numbers (Maldives Ministry of Tourism 2015), was therefore reflected in strong GDP growth. Much of the recent growth in the tourism sector has been driven by increasing numbers of tourists from China.