Has brand Maldives taken a hit?

The Maldives government has suspended three ministers for their alleged derogatory remarks over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise for Lakshadweep on X. This has led to a backlash and cancellation of thousands of hotel bookings and flight tickets by Indian tourists.

EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti announced on X the suspension of all flight bookings to the Maldives.

As per travel industry experts, over 8,000 hotels, 2,500 flight bookings have been cancelled by Indian tourists over the past three days. The incident highlights the power of social media in shaping perceptions and influencing travel decisions. 

What started as an online spat and continued for three days spilled over to the real world with India summoning the Maldivian Maldivian High Commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday even as the Indian envoy in Male met Maldivian officials there.

It started from a series of tweets posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 4 promoting the Indian island of Lakshadweep as a tourist destination. 

In addition to the scenic beauty, Lakshadweep's tranquility is also mesmerising. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on how to work even harder for the welfare of 140 crore Indians. pic.twitter.com/VeQi6gmjIM

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2024

While many netizens, including Bollywood celebrities, cricket legends and Indian missions in other countries hailed the move, some claimed that the island nation would soon be “a tourist destination of the past”. 

Three Maldivian ministers joined the fray, making anti-Modi remarks on X. Although they deleted their posts after the backlash, it led to "Boycott Maldives" posts trending on X, sparking uproar in their own country.

NewsFlash: We have observed a 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since 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… pic.twitter.com/4CYb1iApZG

— MakeMyTrip (@makemytrip) January 8, 2024

Maldives among top honeymoon destinations

The fallout from the spat also raises concerns about the long-term impact on the Maldives' appeal as a tourist destination, particularly among Indian travellers and underscores the potential economic ramifications for the island nation whose economy largely depends on tourism. 

According to the latest data released by the tourism ministry of Maldives, around 18 lakh people visited the archipelago in 2023, and largest number of tourists were from India (2,09,198), followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118). 

Close proximity to India, visa-on-arrival and luxury resorts with serene views have made the Maldives one of the most popular travel destinations for Indians. Most resorts in Maldives offer exclusivity and privacy. From personalized couple activities including dinner on the beach, spa and wellness experiences to yoga and water activities, resorts are leveraging the natural beauty and environment to create unique picturesque travel experiences. 

The diplomatic row erupted after the social media bashing hit “Brand Maldives” in India, experts say. 

“Brand Maldives is suddenly a big question mark; to be avoided for now and to be careful of even in the near future. For Maldives, the Indian tourist was surely a big segment and the current negativity on social media is a deterrent to travel. Brand Maldives today is unwelcoming, negative towards India and seemingly hostile,” says Dr Sandeep Goyal, MD of Rediffusion. 

Maldives has been for years a premium travel destination. Blue seas, lagoons, white sands and plush hotels, but that tourism haven now seems embroiled in controversy, he said. 

“To be fair, to tourists who are non-Indian, the current controversy has no relevance and does not impact them at all. It is to the Indian honeymooners (large segment of tourists) and the well-heeled Indian tourists that the current unrest is creating a fear psychosis of possible trouble,” Dr Goyal pointed out. 

Samit Sinha, Founder and Managing Partner of Alchemist BrandConsulting opines, “If one uses social media as a barometer, it would be fair to assume that there is currently a pervasive climate of prickly nationalism in India, where any slight, real or imaginary, against India, tends to provoke an immediate and often disproportionate backlash. This is then further amplified by the usual celebrity cheerleaders from Bollywood and the cricketing world on social media with their aggrieved posts. It was Canada at the receiving end some time ago. Now it’s the tiny island nation of Maldives, which most Indians would have hitherto been unable to locate on the map.”

“The question is will it hit the Brand Maldives? I see two things occurring simultaneously. First, many people who didn't know or care about the Maldives or knew the difference between the country and let’s say Mauritius, will become aware of it, perhaps even curious. Secondly, some Indians who know about the Maldives and have it on their travel bucket list, will undoubtedly remove it as a destination, at least for the time-being. One, for reasons of genuine nationalistic sentiments. Two, for fear of being judged negatively,” Sinha noted. 

So yes, Maldives tourism, which accounts for 28% of its GDP and over 60% of its forex receipts, a hefty chunk of which is comes from Indian tourists, is definitely going to be hit in the short-term, but not forever, as these things tend to blow over as quickly as they come up, he explained. 

Lakshadweep is a winner

A large number of Indian celebrities such as Ranveer Singh, Virendar Sehwag have tweeted about Lakshadweep over the past three days. Some of them even shared pictures of Lakshadweep to prove their point, however, fact-checkers dubbed them as “Maldives” pictures. 

Some experts hope that this will surely help the island to emerge as a tourist destination, not only for Indians but for people across the world. 

“Difficult to say if the impact on Maldives is purely reactive / short-term or has implications over a longer timeframe. But Lakshadweep clearly is a winner given the coverage,” says Aviral Jain, Managing Director in the Valuation Advisory practice at Kroll. 

Jain seems to be right. EaseMyTrip founder has already lapped up the opportunity and has announced to come up with “crazy special offers” to promote India's smallest island.