In 2014, Chinese tourists accounted for nearly one-third of arrivals with a 30-percent market share, representing the single biggest source market for tourists to the island nation.

A total of 363,626 Chinese tourists visited the Maldives in 2014, up 9.6 percent from the previous year.

However, the annual growth rate of Chinese tourist arrivals slowed from 20 percent at the end of June to 9 percent by the end of December last year.

"Arrivals to the Maldives from China started slowing down during mid-2014 and negative growths were registered since August that year," the Tourism Ministry said.

"January 2015 was recorded as the worst month in terms of Chinese tourist arrivals in the Maldives with a strong negative growth of 33.1 percent. China being the number one market to the Maldives, the negative growth registered from the market was reflected in the total arrivals to the country," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, according to the ministry's visitor survey for 2014, less than 10 percent of Chinese tourists were repeat visitors.

In contrast, the survey found more than 25 percent of British, Italian and German tourists visited the Maldives between two to 10 times.

With the decline in arrivals from China, Europe has regained top spot as the largest regional source market for tourists, increasing its market share from 43.9 percent at the end of December to 54.1 percent in January.

A total of 52,545 visitors were recorded from European countries, representing a marginal growth of 0.5 percent compared to January 2014.

However, with Chinese arrivals representing more than a quarter of visitors, total arrivals reached the government's target of 1.2 million visitors last year.

In terms of individual markets in January 2015, Italy was the second largest source market with an 8.3-percent market share, followed by the United Kingdom with 7.4 percent, Germany with 7.3 percent and Russia with 6 percent.

As interest in Maldives declines in China and the competition ramps up, the Indian Ocean islands will have to adopt measures to lure repeat visitors as much as new tourists, experts said.