Travel plans are being hastily altered due to the Maldives dispute.

Three Maldivian officials' disparaging remarks directed towards India's prime minister seem to have sparked a domino effect of vacation cancellations throughout the island nation.According to Arshdeep Anand, a member of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India's executive committee, several travel agencies have estimated that on January 6 and 7, up to 8,000 reservations for hotels in the Maldives made by small groups of Indian travelers may have been canceled.Anand noted that her own business has also encountered this repercussion. Anand is the CEO of HMA Spectrum Handcrafted Holidays, an outbound travel firm with headquarters in Delhi. Ten couples, who were planning to spend over ₹30 lakh on a quick vacation to the Maldives, have canceled their plans and chosen to go somewhere else. Anand stated, "This declining trend for the Maldives could spiral further," adding that it might also increase travel to Lakshadweep.Although there is no statistic for flight cancellations, Mint's analysis reveals that, with the exception of a few days, the average cost of travel tickets for January between Delhi or Mumbai and Male has plummeted. Flights on IndiGo are currently available for as little as ₹18,500, as opposed to the typical, average return ticket rate of ₹24,000. An about ₹31,000 return ticket from the same cities is available on Vistara. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, and other southeast Asian nations were encouraged to be promoted in lieu of the Maldives by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, which in turn encouraged its members and other travel trade associations to "boycott Maldives."The events are indicative of the way Indians have responded to disparaging statements made by Maldivian ministers about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following the latter's visit to the Lakshadweep islands on January 2-3, which attracted a lot of attention on social media.

On social media platform X, Mariyam Shiuna, the deputy minister of youth empowerment for the Maldives, made comments about the prime minister, referring to him as a "clown" and a "puppet of Israel." Two other deputy ministers in the same department, Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid, also made offensive remarks about the PM. The tweets have since been removed. After then, the hashtag "BoycottMaldives" started to gain traction on X in India. As a result, the co-founder of the online travel company EaseMyTrip decided to support "the nation" on Sunday by canceling all flights to the Maldives.

In response to inquiries from Mint, Prashant Pitti, Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip, stated, "We've suspended Maldives flight bookings in support of the government, impacting 2.4 lakh annual bookings madeIn order to market the destination, Pitti continued, "we have introduced Lakshadweep as our premier destination, on par with international favorites, and wish to enter into an alliance with Lakshadweep Tourism." "We have unveiled captivating packages designed to enhance your travel experience and help you fall in love with Lakshadweep like never before." High net worth individuals (HNIs) are not, however, experiencing much of an impact on luxury travel, according to Radhika Khanijo, CEO of Delhi-based luxury travel company Welgrow Travels. She stated that there aren't any cancellations as of now, and they'll have to wait a week or so to find out how things work out. She stated that HNI visitors to the Maldives often stay 4–5 nights and visit at least twice a year. The expenditures vary from