PM Modi in Lakshadweep.
Credit: X/@narendramodi
Against the background of the India-Maldives diplomatic row, Lakshadweep search trends have witnessed a 20-year high.
Lakshadweep search trend in India in 20 years.
Credit: Google Trends
A diplomatic row broke out between India and Maldives when PM Narendra Modi posted pictures from his two-day Lakshadweep visit on X, where he urged Indians to embrace their adventurous side and tour the island. Following this, three Maldives ministers -- now suspended -- posted derogatory remarks stating that the country's leader was trying to project an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
Reacting to the affront on Modi, Indians started to 'boycott' Maldives and promoted Lakshadweep as a prime tourist destination. Celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Ranveer Singh posted on their respective social media accounts about the beauties of the Union Territory. Interestingly enough, many posted pictures of Maldives referring to it as Lakshadweep.
The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) too, on Monday urged the nation's tourism and trade associations to stop promoting the Maldives and travel to Lakshadweep instead.
Worldwide too, the search for the union territory off the coast of Kerala, has witnessed a 20-year high after the Maldives kerfuffle.
Lakshadweep worldwide search trend in 20 years.
Credit: Google Trends
On Monday, India's online travel agency, EaseMyTrip scrapped all flight bookings to Maldives and another travel agency, MakeMyTrip saw a 3400 per cent rise in searches on Lakshadweep.
While Lakshadweep search trends in India and across the world witnessed a spike, the search trend for Maldives has been steady for 20 years.
Comparison between search trends of Lakshadweep and Maldives in India in 20 years.
Credit Google Trends
Comparison between worldwide search trends of Lakshadweep and Maldives in 20 years.
Credit: Google Trends
India gave Maldives the highest tourism boost post-Covid, with over two lakh Indians visiting the Island nation annually.
Maldives' tourism association on Tuesday 'strongly' condemned the ministers' remarks referring to India as 'one of the top markets'.
Amid India's ongoing tension with Maldives, Indian government sources, on Tuesday, stated that the Island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep is set to get a new airport, for both military and civilian operations.
India's relation with Maldives has been fluctuating ever since the new pro-China government, under the presidency of Mohamed Muizzu, came to power in the island nation.
Muizzu, in December 2023, asked India to withdraw its troops from Maldives and later asked India to put a stop to conducting hydrographic surveys in the territorial waters of the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Although, the Maldives government has asserted to the Indian High Commission that the ministers' comments do not reflect the views of the government and that Maldives considers India a 'key ally', the relations between the two nations are on the brink.
The Maldives' geographical closeness to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep, and 300 nautical miles from the mainland's western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes going through the Indian Ocean makes it strategically significant for the mainland.