Maldives faces losses as Indian travelers boycott over social media.
As calls from Indian tourists to boycott the island nation grow stronger, social media remarks made by Maldives officials might cost the government millions of dollars in lost tourism earnings.
Ankit Chaturvedi, vice president and worldwide head of marketing at Rategain, an Indian travel software company, stated on Tuesday, “We are seeing a 40% drop in bookings over the last two days.”
He told CNBC Travel, “Since most people book on weekends, the drop seems more significant because [bookings] should have gone up ideally.”
Following a diplomatic dispute that arose last week over a series of posts that emerged on X, formerly known as Twitter, on India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s account, travel reservations to the Maldives plummeted.
Some saw the posts which featured him snorkeling, lounging by the water, and interacting with locals as a covert ploy to draw tourists away from the island nation.
One well-known Indian travel agency, EaseMyTrip, declared it is stopping flight reservations from India to the Maldives after claims that hundreds of Indian tourists have canceled plans to the islands.
According to The India Express, several travel agencies in India are canceling reservations to the Maldives, purging the destination’s images from their websites, and advising customers to visit Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar Islands, or the Indian archipelago of Lakshadweep.
Similar to the Maldives, the little-known Lakshadweep is a picturesque network of sandy atolls, coral reefs, and crystal-clear water. The disagreement has brought the area into the public eye.
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