Don’t touch Lakshadweep

The Maldives is facing vitriolic backlash after three ministers from its cabinet passed derogatory comments against Prime Minister Modi following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that his trip was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives. While some Indian tourists cancelled their scheduled trips to the Maldives, a travel portal suspended all flight bookings to the island in solidarity with India. A slew of celebrities also extolled the virtues of domestic tourism, specifically turning Lakshadweep into the next hottest holiday hub. The Maldivian high command has distanced itself from the remarks, but a former sports minister said the Indian boycott will hit the archipelago’s economy hard.

A few numbers might help contextualise these developments. For starters, recent data has shown that Indians top the tourist arrival figures in the Maldives, with more than two lakh visiting the island nation every year after the pandemic. Statistics from the Maldives tourism ministry reveals that over 17 lakh tourists visited the 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 travellers 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 open for international tourists during the pandemic and nearly 63,000 Indians visited the country in that period.

Tourism is a major source of revenue for the country. In recent years, the island nation has witnessed a significant growth in tourist arrivals and the number of hotels. Between 2006 to 2022, the number of resorts shot up from 88 to 172, while the number of beds for tourists rose from 16,000 to over 60,000. Tourist footfalls also spiked from six lakh to 16 lakh during this period. Tourism continues to contribute in excess of 20% of the GDP, raking in a revenue of 1,777 million MVR (Maldivian Rufiyaa) in 2006, and recording a staggering growth of 487% with a revenue of 10,430 million MVR in 2022. And although figures tell us that the direct contribution of tourism to the Maldivian economy’s GDP is 20%, an Asian Development Bank-authored analysis said that the indirect contribution of tourism to the economy was 80%.

Mud-wrestling with the Maldivians is not a good enough incentive to transform Lakshadweep into a paradise for high-end tourists. It’s an incredibly tiny group of islands, atolls and reefs, that is just about the tenth of the size of the Maldives. But its delicate ecosystem is in no way prepared for the ‘hungry wolves’ format of plundering that the modern tourism ecosystem demands. Opening up the island, which can presently be accessed only via a government permit provided in Kochi, is a sureshot recipe for turning the archipelago into a ragged replica of what is now being made of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Close to a million trees are set to be felled there on account of the Great Nicobar Project.

So here’s a word of advice to India’s tourism gatekeepers: Leave Lakshadweep alone, focus on sustainably developing existing tourist hubs, the infrastructure – cultural and social via beverage licences, and peripheral vis-a-vis last mile connectivity and bed and breakfast (B&Bs); and while you’re at it, educate the travellers to not turn into parasites.