"The information is absolutely wrong," Indika Manoj, the resort"s front office manager,said yesterday. The hotel had never discriminated against tourists from China.

　　A claim that kettles were removed from the rooms of Chinese guests at a luxury resortin the Maldives to stop them eating instant noodles instead of hotel meals was deniedyesterday.

　　The hotel said the claim came from a disgruntled former Chinese worker refused acontract because of poor performance during a trial period.

　　According to the South China Morning Post, Zhao Jianke said staff at the five-starBeach House Iruveli resort were asked to remove kettles from Chinese guests" roomsafter the appointment of a new general manager in December.

　　Zhao said the new general manager referred to China as "cup noodle" in publicbecause of its "CN" acronym.

　　"The information is absolutely wrong," Indika Manoj, the resort"s front office manager,said yesterday. The hotel had never discriminated against tourists from China.

　　Some kettles had been removed, she said, because they had been damaged by guestsusing them to boil food, but that was just routine maintenance.

　　She said Zhao had worked in the hotel"s front office for less than three months, and hewasn"t kept on because he did not perform well.

　　Furious reaction

　　Manoj said the hotel had not witnessed a drop in the number of Chinese touristsbecause of the allegation, which Zhao first aired in an online post on March 1.

　　Between then and this Monday, the resort had received 314 Chinese guests, about thesame number as last year in the same off-season period.

　　Yesterday, there were 29 Chinese tourists among the hotel"s 95 guests, she said.

　　Zhao"s post sparked a furious reaction from Internet users in China. Some peoplecalled for a boycott of the resort, while some potential tourists said they would not begoing to the Maldives until the resort apologized.

　　Chinese tourists are now traveling more and farther, but while contributing to abooming tourism market elsewhere, their behavior has come under some scrutiny.

　　Reports in the Maldives media posted online said that despite Chinese peopleaccounting for almost a quarter of all visitors to the Indian Ocean island nation in 2012,many resorts regarded Chinese guests as relatively "low-yield" due to low spending onextras such as food and drink, but they were welcome as they boosted occupancy ratesduring the off-season.

　　Ahmed Adheeb, the Maldives tourism minister, said no formal complaints had beenreceived by authorities over alleged discrimination at the country"s resorts, but suchincidents were taken seriously.

　　A seven-day stay at Beach House Iruveli costs 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (US$3,200-US$4,800) with air tickets included, according to a travel agency in Shanghai.

　　City travel agencies said reports of discrimination against Chinese tourists at hotels inthe Maldives were "very rare."

　　Some tourists took instant noodles to India to eat due to concerns over hygiene, butsuch things should not happen in the Maldives, said Yang Yanping, manager of theAsian department at Shanghai China Travel International Co Ltd.

　　Dai Mingyu, a Shanghai resident who was a guest at the resort in November, said hedid not encounter unfair treatment. "I think its service and facilities are good," Dai said.

　　In 2011, some 20,298 Shanghai residents booked holidays in the Maldives, 18 percentup on the previous year.