Lakshadweep gets special mention in Budget 2024, boost for tourism infra

Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Interim Budget 2024 in the Lok Sabha, at Parliament House in Delhi. (PTI)

Lakshadweep, which was recently at the centre of a row between India and the Maldives, will get a major infrastructure boost to cater to growing tourist interest, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's said in her budget speech on February 1.

Port connectivity, tourism infrastructure and amenities will be put in place for Lakshadweep and other islands, as demand for domestic destination grows, the minister said.

During a recent visit to Lakshadweep, Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged Indians to explore destinations within the country.

Following which the union territory, an archipelago of 36 islands, recorded massive surge in searches on travel platforms. Online travel aggregators such as Ixigo and MakeMyTrip saw 2,900 percent and 3,400 percent increase in searches for Lakshadweep.

The spike also coincided as boycott Maldives trended on social media after Maldives ministers disparaged Modi and India in their social media posts after Modi's visit.

Maldives minister Abdulla Mahzoom Majid claimed that India was shifting focus from the Maldives by promoting Lakshadweep as tourist destination. India faced significant challenges in competing with the Maldives in beach tourism, he said.

To harness the potential of this archipelago, the government needs to prioritise and enhance the region's infrastructure, experts in travel and hospitality space said.

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Accessibility remains the biggest challenge, they said. Travel agents also pointed to lack of resorts or hotels.

India’s largest hospitality company, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), in 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.

From being the top tourist group visiting Maldives, Indians slipped to the fifth position in the last three weeks of January. Maldives Ministry of Tourism figures showed a notable drop in the number of Indian travellers visiting the island nation.

Over two lakh Indians visited Maldives annually in the last three years, the highest from any country post-COVID 19 pandemic, data showed.

According to the statistics, Maldives received over 1.74 lakh tourists till January 28, of which only 13,989 were Indians. Russia topped the chart with 18,561 tourists from the country visiting Maldives, followed by Italy (18,111), China (16,529) and UK (14,588).