Lakshwadeep Vs Maldives: Can Collective Boycott By Indians Wound Island Nation Maldives' Economy?

When travel and tourism are a country's largest contributor to economic growth, they ought not to disrespect their top tourists, or else there will be consequences. Maldives, an archipelagic state in South Asia, popular for its coral islands and sandbanks, is likely to face one such fatal blow as Indian tourists collectively call for a boycott of this island nation. It all started with bigotry remarks by a couple of ministers from the Maldives against India and their Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

What's the India-Maldives Row All About?

It began when on January 4th, PM Modi tweeted about his visit to the beautiful island of Lakshwadeep which is a tropical archipelago, off the coast of Kerala, India.

While meeting the citizens there and trying new activities, PM Modi through his X handle promoted Lakshwadeep and encouraged Indian citizens and others to visit the place. Modi even announced developments for creating futuristic infrastructure and opportunities in Lakshwadeep.

Modi was seen exploring the many sea-beds of Lakshwadeep, snorkelling and even walking through the bountiful and pristine beaches of the region. He called his experience in Lakshwadeep 'exhilarating' and even encouraged those who wish to embrace the adventurer on the island, adding, "Lakshadweep has to be on your list."

PM Modi's visit and activities were top-notch and a move in the right direction for the prosperity of Lakshwadeep in future. It grabbed much attention, especially a few of the ministers in the Maldives.

It needs to be noted that nowhere in his visit or tweets, did PM Modi either mention Maldives or compare the South Asian island to Lakshwadeep.

However, un-called for, the Ministry of Youth Affairs in Maldives Maryam Shiuna in her X handle referred to PM Modi as a 'clown' and 'puppet to Israel'. Her post has now been deleted. But when it was available on social media, Shiuna's other colleagues Malsha Shareef, and Mahzoom Majida also chimed in, making negative comments against India and PM Modi.

These remarks have escalated like wildfire among Indians as they are disappointed and angered over their racist behaviours. That led to reportedly a mass cancellation in flights and hotels bookings.

Many agreed that the Maldives ministers' derogatory remarks were unwarranted and unnecessary.

As the conflict heightened, the Maldives government suspended the three ministers. Nonetheless, #BoycottMaldives is now a trending topic. As majority of Indians have come in support of India, its government, and Lakshwadeep. From travellers, citizens, and Bollywood stars, and even tourism companies are now promoting visits for Lakshwadeep.

How #Boycott Maldives May Wound The Said Island Nation's Economy?

CHALO Lakshadweep!

Suspending the ministers in question by the Maldives government failed to calm the anger among Indian citizens. The reason because the matter did not just end by deleting a racist post or suspension of these ministers, as more past facist remarks and even an 'India Out' campaign that was reportedly led by the newly elected president of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu.

It is being reported that Muizzu gained power in the island nation with his 'Out India' campaign. Amidst the row with India, Muizzu also departed for China on January 7th night, to begin his state visit to the neighbouring country at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. China and India, who reside beside each other, have been competing for their influence in Maldives for the past decade.

Huge number of flights and hotel bookings have cancelled? A report by LiveMint said that somewhat 8,000 hotel bookings, as well as 2,500 flight tickets, have been cancelled by Indian tourists. The Quint cited a dubious claim that stated so far about 10,500 hotel bookings and 5,520 flight tickets have been cancelled.

As per the sources of India's largest airline in terms of market share, Indigo has reportedly said that they have not observed any surge in the cancellations of flight tickets to Maldives by Indians over the last week, as per WION.

Either is the case, even when the actual numbers of hotel bookings and flight tickets being cancelled are not accurately known at the moment.

There has been a paradigm shift when renowned figures and leading tourism companies have halted bookings for trips in Maldives, in solidarity with their nation, India. If that was not enough, Lakshwadeep, which up till now, is still an unexplored island to the fullest, has gained massive popularity.

Nishant Pitti, co-founder of EasyMyTrip has said, In solidarity with our nation, EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings."

Prashant Pitti, also co-founder of EasyMyTrip promoted Lakshwadeep, "Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles." Prashant even declared that the company will come up with crazy special offers to promote this pristine destination that PM Modi has recently visited.

As of the latest, EasyMyTrip holds an 8.1% market share in India's online travel market. The company's stock price gained by as much as 6.2% on BSE despite cancelling all the bookings for Maldives.

Even the top online travel agency in India, MakeMyTrip is on board to promote Lakshwadeep. On its X handler, MakeMyTrip which holds up to 53.8% market share, said "We have observed a 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since the Honorable PM's visit."

"This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a 'Beaches of India' campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore the country's stunning beaches. Keep watching this space!" MakeMyTrip added.

Further, Bollywood biggies for whom Maldives have been a hot destination for travelling, have come out and promoted Indian tourist spots and criticised Maldives. These actors and actresses are Big B, Amitabh Bachchan, Varun Dhawan, Salman Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, and Akshay Kumar who recently toured Maldives, while cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatesh Prasad and Virender Sehwag have vouched for the same.

While Indians and home ground companies have come in solidarity with PM Modi, the country's ally, Israel who was also mentioned in the bigotry comment is planning to partake in the development of Lakshwadeep.

The Israeli embassy in India on its X handler shared images of the pristine and majestic underwater beauty of Lakshwadeep that they visited last year. The embassy on January 8th also said, "We were in #Lakshadweep last year upon the federal government's request to initiate the desalination program," adding, "Israel is ready to commence working on this project tomorrow."

Moreover, PTI reported that traders' body secretary general Praveen Khandelwal has encouraged traders to stand united in sending a strong message against such behaviour by temporarily abstaining from trade engagements with the Maldives.

Also, Tata Group who have companies dominating in sectors like tech, automobile, steel and others, have already announced a plan to drive Lakshwadeep island earlier in January last year. Tata-backed Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), which is the country's largest hospitality company and also the Taj Hotels chain operator on January 10, 2023, announced the signing of two Taj-branded resorts on the islands of Suheli and Kadmat in Lakshadweep. The Greenfield projects are slated to open in 2026 and will be developed by IHCL.

Additionally, on January 4, 2024, PM Modi inaugurated the Kochi-Lakshadweep islands submarine optical fibre connection (KLI-SOFC) project among various developmental projects worth more than Rs 1,150 crore covering a wide range of sectors including technology, energy, water resources, healthcare and education.

How Maldives Economy Will Be Impacted From Boycott?

Firstly, Indian tourists are the largest contributors to the travel and tourism sector of Maldives.

In 2023, India held the first rank with 209,198 travellers visiting Maldives, followed by a total of 209,146 travellers from Russia, 187,118 travellers from China, 155,730 travellers from the United Kingdom and 135,090 travellers from Germany, as per the official data from the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives.

Although there was a drop in several travellers from India in 2023 compared to 241,369 travellers in 2022, nevertheless Indian tourists were still the largest visitors in Maldives in the year. In 2022, Russia and United Kingdom-based travellers were at the second and third spot with 201,957 visitors and 179,312 visitors to Maldives respectively.

For Maldives, India continues to be the largest market share for their tourism sector in the last 3 years. India's market share stood at 23% in 2021, 14.4% in 2022, and 11.1% in 2023. The travel and tourism sector is the largest contributor to Maldives' economic growth to the tune of 25% of GDP and 75% from second sources. Hence, Maldives is likely to face the brunt of the Boycott.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators expect that the repercussions of recent events and the call for a boycott will become apparent within the next 20-25 days, as per ANIs. Rajiv Mehta, president of IATO told the news agency that suddenly, there has been no inquiry on Maldives. He said, "There are sudden drops. Those who have made payments will not cancel them." He also added that they are expecting the people will not book trips to the Maldives.

Further, Ex-Maldives minister Ahmed Mahloof also said, Indians boycotting the Maldives would have a huge impact on our economy. It would be hard for us to recover from such a campaign.

Even when the feud normalises in the future between India and Maldives, chances are that Lakshadweep by then would become an attractive tourist spot.