Lakshadweep focuses on exclusivity

The Union Territory is stepping up its promotional activities with the reopening of the Bangaram Island resort this October. Its appeal for Indians: ‘solitude’ and ‘exclusivity’.

The Union Territory of Lakshadweep has announced that it will finally be able to reopen one of its islands – Bangaram island – for tourists on October 14, 2016. The resorts at Bangaram and Agatti islands – two popular destinations in Lakshadweep – had been closed for the past couple of years as they were caught in legal battles between the administration and tourism operators.

Jatin Goyal, Director, Tourism, Union Territory of Lakshadweep, explains, “The highlight for 2016-17 for us is the re-launch of Bangaram Island resort, which was the flagship of Lakshadweep Tourism until 2010. We are promoting it as an exclusive and untouched destination that offers a lot of solitude to visitors. It has minimal carbon footprint so we are promoting it as an eco-friendly resort. It will now be run through an agency called Sports which is a society supported by the Lakshadweep Administration which will be running the resort now and Sports will be managing it.”

The delegation from the Union Territory visited Mumbai, Surat, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi to promote its products. The activity it is promoting includes diving, kayaking, parasailing, jet skiing and snorkeling. It is reaching out to three segments: corporates, couples and families.

Goyal adds, “We have only 30 cottages at Bangaram right now which means only 60 pax at a time. We want to keep the numbers low and make it exclusive. We want low volume, high value visitors since the carrying capacity of island is low. As of now, Lakshadweep gets about 8,000 tourists from India. Once we launch Bangaram we will be targeting 15,000.” The tourism board has called on various travel agents and has started receiving bookings.