Andaman & Nicobar Islands target to surpass 5 lakhs mark this year; demands focus on airfares & connectivity

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located hundreds of kilometers from mainland India, is grappling with its own challenges in both tourism and development. Despite the obstacles, Mohammad H Jadwet, Chairman – IATO Andaman & Nicobar Chapter, shared an optimistic outlook on the Union Territory’s tourism prospects during his conversation with T3.

He shared that the island has almost reached the pre-covid levels. “The highest number for tourist arrivals to Andaman & Nicobar Island is around 5 lakhs in a year, we hope to cross this level by the current year itself.”

The recent initiatives or programmes that have been implemented in favour of the state include a substantial budget created to do publicity domestically and participate in trade & tourism fairs all over the country. Jadwet hopes that such initiatives should bear fruit in the years to come. “Significant efforts have been made to connect Andaman & Nicobar Island internationally, as the new airport has been inaugurated last year, the capacity of which is almost 3X of the previous one in terms of handling passengers & aircrafts, and we hope with this there will be lot more connectivity, not only from Indian cities but also internationally” he expressed.

Air Asia has recently announced flights from Kuala Lumpur to Port Blair and back from 16^th November, which is a significant move, according to him. “We hope this will help attracting foreign tourists to the island, as currently the percentage of international arrivals is very low hardly at 2-3%, this can be corrected.”

Referring to challenges, Jadwet shared that the primary obstacle is connectivity. Being an island, the dependence on air connectivity is significant. “Our connectivity is not as per the desired levels, both domestically and internationally. We hope that the international connectivity starts up by end of year, but we also want more and more domestic cities to be connected”, added Jadwet.

The other problem he mentioned is the airfare, which are now comparatively very expensive. He further added, “People are choosing to go to other international & domestic destinations which are much cheaper to access, and there is a competition we face from Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Dubai and other beach destinations. Being a remote island, the services we provide in terms of hotels & logistics also tend to be expensive, which is another significant challenge.”

Another challenge is the shortage of premium hotels and quality rooms as well as branded accommodation, for which the government needs to place a system in place to attract investments, provide land, diversion of land so that more capacity can be built up. He also suggested focus on skill development of the local population and motivate them to join tourism sector. “Currently we are dependent on importing skilled forces from mainland India”, added Jadwet.