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Calls on social media to boycott the Maldives following “insulting” remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by three Maldivian deputy ministers underscores the probability of travel and tourism being drawn into geopolitical and economic affairs as India’s outbound travel grows further, as per aviation consultancy CAPA India.
“…the current situation does highlight how tourism can be drawn into geopolitical and economic affairs, especially in cases where a destination has significant dependence on key source markets. India will increasingly be one of those source markets,” CAPA India said.
Outbound travel by Indians is growing at a rapid pace and CAPA India expects the growth to be 15 percent per annum through the end of this decade.
The consultancy said that given the fast news cycle of social media, which quickly moves on “to the next controversy”, the actual impact of the boycott calls on actual travel may be “ephemeral”. “Unless of course the negative sentiment escalates to a level where Indian travellers genuinely feel unwelcome in the Maldives,” CAPA India added.
Quoting data from the Maldivian tourism ministry, CAPA India said that the country’s tourism industry would be concerned about the potential impact of the controversy, given that India was its largest source market for tourists in 2023, accounting for 11.1 percent of the total arrivals. Although the Maldives has acted against the three ministers by suspending them, social media in India are replete with calls to boycott the tourism-dependent island nation as a holiday destination.
At least one major online travel booking portal–EaseMyTrip–has suspended sale of flight tickets to the Maldives. There are close to 60 flights per week between India and Maldives, of which, Indian carriers operate around 50 flights. IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and Air India Express currently operate flights between India and Maldives. So far, no Indian carrier has indicated changes to its Maldives schedule due to the controversy.
“In this case, the calls for a boycott in India have been led by public opinion. A similar popular groundswell was seen in China in relation to Thailand in 2018 (following the capsizing of a tourist vessel off the coast of Phuket in 2018) and in relation to Malaysia in 2014 (following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370),” CAPA India said.
India is the largest source market for a number of destinations, especially in its neighbourhood, including Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, as well as Dubai. And it ranks in the top five for several others, such as Thailand and Singapore, CAPA India said, adding that more countries are likely to join their ranks in time as outbound travel by Indians grows further.
“And incidents, such as that with the Maldives over the weekend, may occur with others in the future. As and when that happens, national pride and interests should always be safeguarded. But at the same time, it will be important that all stakeholders respond in such circumstances in a measured and collected manner, to ensure that the aviation and tourism industries do not become reflexive bargaining chips,” the consultancy said.
