The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on Monday, January 8, called upon all tour and flight operators to boycott the Maldives and redirect their focus to the Lakshadweep and Andaman islands. Subhash Goyal, Chairman of the Aviation & Tourism Committee at ICC, issued an appeal to major tourism trade associations "in view of the anti-India feelings expressed by the Ministers of Maldives."
He said despite Indians contributing significantly to the Maldives' foreign exchange and job creation, some ministers in the island nation made anti-India statements. "Please divert all such enquiries to Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which are even better than Maldives in many ways and other destinations which can be promoted in the Indian Ocean area are Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bali, Phuket etc," Goyal added.
Amid the demands for the boycott of the island nation as a travel destination, official data shows that the Maldives has the highest number of Indians as tourists following the COVID 19 pandemic. Over two lakh Indians visited the Maldives annually in the last three years.
According to the Maldives Tourism Ministry statistics, over 17 lakh tourists visited the island nation in 2023, out of which more than 2,09,198 visitors were Indians, followed by Russians (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118).
The number of Indian visitors was more than 2.4 lakh in 2022, while over 2.11 lakh Indians flew to the Maldives in 2021. The Maldives was also one of the few countries which was open for international tourists during the pandemic — when it received nearly 63,000 Indians. In 2018, India was the fifth-largest source of tourist arrivals in the Maldives with 90,474 visitors. In 2019, India reached the second spot with 1.66 lakh tourists from here.
However, the anti-Indian comments by Maldives' ministers ignited a diplomatic row between the two nations, and triggered a #BoycottMaldives trend on X. Outraged Indians expressed their discontent, announcing cancellations of flights and hotel bookings to the country. Many prospective travellers are now turning their attention to holidays in Lakshadweep.
In a broader call to action, the ICC encouraged Indian carriers operating in Maldives to suspend their operations and consider redirecting flights to Lakshadweep under the Udaan Scheme.
Earlier in the day, travel booking platform EaseMyTrip announced the suspension of all Maldives flight bookings. “In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings,” company's CEO and Co-Founder, Nishant Pitti, said in a X post.
Twitterati speculated that over 7,500 hotel bookings have been cancelled in the Maldives while more than 2,300 flight tickets to the islands have been cancelled. However, CNBC-TV18 could not independently verify the numbers.
The ICC, in addition, has urged the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and the Hotel Association of India to explore investment opportunities in Lakshadweep islands, with the promise of better returns compared to Maldives.
"I appeal to all the Indian carriers operating to Maldives to suspend their operation and seriously think of operating to Lakshadweep Islands under the Udaan Scheme and the members of FHRAI and the Hotel Association of India to seriously look at investing in Lakshadweep Islands as in the future it will give you better returns on your investment than Maldives," Goyal said.
"I have already asked STIC Travels to stop selling Maldives. This appeal has been made as a patriotic Indian in the larger national interest," Goyal added.
