The phone lines of Lakshadweep’s Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS) that handles tourism in the territory have never been busier. From one or two tourist inquiries a day, they have been getting at least 10 a day since last month, said Abdul Samad, one of SPORTS’ two water sports instructors who helped Modi snorkel in the island in January. Meanwhile, Cordelia Cruises, which has been sailing from Mumbai, Kochi and Goa to Lakshadweep since September 2021, has witnessed a 2,500% increase in booking queries since Modi’s visit. New beach and water villas are already being planned on the islands of Suheli and Kadmat, Samad confirmed, and India’s finance minister Neermala Sitharaman even mentioned Lakshadweep in her budget speech on 1 February while talking about better connectivity to India’s islands to grow tourism.
A blip in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep’s 36 islands include 12 atolls, three reefs and five submerged banks. Its 10 inhabited islands have a…
