"Maldives has immense tourism potential for Indian Travelers." - Sunjay Sudhir
Tuesday 8th of September 2020
"Maldives has immense tourism potential for Indian Travelers." - Sunjay Sudhir
The High Commissioner of India, Sunjay Sudhir gave an exclusive interview to Business Traveller India on September 2nd, where he provided an insight on the tourism flow and bilateral travel agreement between India and Maldives. With the doubling of Indian tourist arrivals to the Maldives in 2019, India is the second-largest source market for the island nation.
The global pandemic took the world on a spin, and the outcome was detrimental to tourism industry in all parts of the world, due to the steep drop in global tourist arrivals. Maldives, in particular, suffers the most consequences from the pandemic and hence, both countries, India and Maldives, need to encourage more and more Indian tourists to visit the beautiful region.
The high commissioner says that India and Maldives, in unity, have announced several new initiatives that are expected to boost connectivity between the two regions. Nurturing Maldives’ economic growth and developing new travel and tourism zones are a few key objectives of this partnership.
Some of the latest initiatives include the commencement of Air India flights, under the air travel bubble, from Thiruvananthapuram to Malé on August 25. Since the air bubble is available for airlines of both countries, huge interest has been evident from Maldivian airline, Indigo and Spicejet to connect Malé with Indian cities.
India’s low-cost carrier, IndiGo has relaunched flight operations to the Maldives on September 3rd, directly connecting Kochi to Male after a three-month long suspension of operations due to lockdowns imposed by both Maldivian and Indian authorities.
When asked on what measures have been taken to boost the tourism flow, the high commissioner says that the Maldives government has already launched travel roadshows in India to attract Indian tourists and to highlight that tourism facilities in the Maldives cater not only to top-end tourists but also to the budget travellers.
The commissioner says that from his opinion, Maldives has immense tourism potential for Indian travellers and is looking to introduce more direct flights between India and Maldives