India- Maldives diplomatic fallout: More than 8166 hotel bookings, 2500 flight tickets to island nation canceled

Mumbai: The derogatory comments by some Maldives ministers against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent visit to Lakshadweep has only aggravated the problem for the island nation which is already grappling with falling tourism since the new government took charge.

Though the cancellation of holidays came to focus soon after the controversial remarks on social media by some Maldives ministers, the rage among Indians began immediately after the new government indicated alignment with China.

Sources in the tourism industry said that more than 8166 hotel bookings and around 2500 flight tickets from Indians were canceled since Maldives showed an inclination toward China. The turnaround by the island nation came when Mohamed Muizzu took charge as the President of Maldives in October last year. Soon his government began to show the country’s alignment towards China.

“This did not go well with Indians and many started canceling their holidays to Maldives,” said an industry source.

Though the spiraling controversy over the ministers' remarks against India forced the Muizzu government to first distance itself from the comments and then suspend three of them, the action did not help change the sentiments among Indians. “The cancelation of holidays to Maldives will only increase and reach the five-digit figures in the coming week,” said Subhash Motwani, Director, Namaste Tourism.

He said that India has been one of the top tourism providers for Maldives since the COVID time. “In the past four years, India has displaced other countries like China to be the number one tourism provider for Maldives,” Motwani said.

He added the cancelation began with the new Maldives government’s inclination towards China. “They should not forget that India is also the number one country providing revenue to them. There is a major investment from Indians in the hospitality sector there,” Motwani said.

He further said that Indians should now consider other alternatives to Maldives such as Lakshadweep and Andamans islands in India which have some of the cleanest beaches in Asia. “Among foreign destinations, we should consider Mauritius, Seychelles, island resorts of Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand as well as Sri Lanka,” he added.

Citing why he chose these as alternatives, Motwani said that these places give better value for money as Maldives is exorbitantly priced because of the ‘one island one resort’ concept. “Also, the Maldives capital Male doesn’t have any tourism because of their regressive thinking towards most nationalities and individuals,” Motwani said.

Author-Manish Pachouly.

(The views expressed in this article do not reflect those of NewsMeter.)