Indian tourists preferring Sri Lanka over Maldives

Over the last few weeks, there was a huge elation about Sri Lanka recording a higher number of tourists than the Maldives in the month of January. The development comes amidst the strained ties between the two neighbouring countries of the Island over multiple issues. 

In January last year, 13,759 Indians visited Sri Lanka, but the number of arrivals more than doubled to 34,399 this January. In contrast, the famous South Asian holiday destination recorded a drop in Indian tourist arrivals from 17,029 in January last year to 15,006 this year. Although previously holding the top position among visitors to the archipelago, the Indians slipped to the fifth position in the last three weeks of January.

This column over the last few weeks highlighted the ruptures that occurred between Male and New Delhi since pro-China Mohamed Muizzu becoming President of the Maldives. His campaign platform was based on the promise of expelling Indian forces from the islands. An ugly spat was witnessed between the two states subsequent to the derogatory remarks made by some junior Maldivian politicians about Indian Premier Narendra Modi over a video which promoted tourism in Lakshadweep. The row between the two countries got further escalated when the Male Government gave permission to the Chinese research ship – Xiang Yang Hong 3 – to dock in the Maldives. 

The tilt of Male towards Beijing has not gone down well with the Indian public. The vituperative comments made by their politicians about the Indian Premier paved the way for a massive social media campaign, lobbying Indians to boycott visiting the Maldives while one of India’s largest travel platforms suspended flight bookings to the archipelago. Prominent Indian celebrities too publicly urged their fellow citizens to shun the popular tourist destination.

It has been often said that the Maldivian tourism industry boomed due to the two-decade-old civil war in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the Indian travellers preferring its neighbour across the Palk Strait is a huge bonanza to its tourism industry, which showed a strong rebound in 2023 after having endured a traumatic period post-Easter Sunday terror attack. According to a report by Booking.com and McKinsey published last year, Indians could be the fourth largest global travel spenders by 2030. The anticipated surge in disposable incomes of Indians and their growing appetite for outbound travel would augur well for the Sri Lankan hospitality industry.

Currently, the relationship between New Delhi and Colombo is on a sound footing, and the commercial ties between Sri Lanka and India too are flourishing. The recent introduction of Unified Payments Interface transactions through LankaQR is set to enhance the convenience and security of digital payments for Indian tourists in Sri Lanka. Speaking at the recently concluded OTM 2024 session, India’s most international travel trade show, Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said that the Government was considering extending the visa-free status for India beyond March to continue attracting travellers from the world’s most populous state. Two prominent Indian hotel chains – Intercontinental hotel and ITC Colombo – are expected to start operations by the end of this month, further raising the appeal of the island in the eyes of Indian travellers.

In 2023, India was Sri Lanka’s largest tourism market, with 302,844 tourists or 21% of the total arrivals. It maintains its status as the top tourist source market year-to-date in 2024. The rising importance of Indian tourists requires a paradigm shift in the attitudes of the general public too because for a long period of time tourists were viewed as Caucasians or Anglo-Saxons from European countries. Efforts must be undertaken to attract high-spending visitors from India and such an approach necessitates an expansion in the diversity of offerings marketed to travellers in the form of top-notch casinos as well as high-quality entertainment. A well-thought-out strategic plan which exploits India’s potential as a premier outbound tourism market could generate enormous benefits to Sri Lanka’s economy.