Port Blair, Oct 21: (Courtesy: TravelBizMonitor) In order to make Andaman Islands more accessible to tourists from mainland and that too at affordable rates, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration is planning to charter flight to operate between mainland and Port Blair.
Talking to media, who were sponsored by MakeMyTrip to the island, at the Raj Bhavan, Lt. Governor of Andaman & Nicobar, Lt. General (Rtd) A K Singh said that the Administration is in “advanced level of talks” with Air India to commence charter operations from Kolkata and Chennai. While 50 per cent of the seats will be reserved for the island locals at a subsidised rate, the remaining will be offered to tourists, again at a subsidised cost. “Airfare is a big dampener for tourism growth. Despite our continued persuasion, the fares haven’t come down.
That is why we are now thinking of introducing charters,” he said. The Lt. Governor blamed the LTC (Leave Travel Concession) segment and big travel consolidators for the high airfares to the island. The Administration is in talks with various private airlines to commence operations to the island. Air India is also expected to commence international operations between Delhi and Phuket via Port Blair from January next year.
Talking about tourism development in the island, he said that tourism is “reasonably developed” in the island and is one of the mainstays for future development, other being fisheries. However, he said that considering the “strategic location” and “fragile and sensitive” nature of islands, conventional tourism development is impossible in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. “More than 90 per cent of the land area is under forest over which comprises protected sanctuaries, biosphere hotspots, etc. Being pristine at the same time fragile, our focus is on Eco and Sustainable Tourism,” he said. The Administration had formulated a draft Ecotourism Policy last week, which has been placed for public opinion and comments for one month. Andaman received 2.5 lakh tourists last year, out of which 20,000 were foreign tourists. “We can sustain a lakh more visitors by opening more islands and spreading our season,” the LG said.
As far as opening of more islands for tourism was concerned, the Lt. Governor said that the Administration is in the process of developing tourism infrastructure in islands like Little Island, Neil Island, and Long Island. He said that the process of notifying the “Master Plan” for development of Havelock and Neil islands is in the pipeline and the Administration would be able to undertake infrastructure development of these islands in a systematic way once the plan is finalised. However, the he said that the investment model pursued by island destinations like Maldives, Mauritius, etc. is not feasible for Andaman & Nicobar considering strategic location and fragile nature of environment. “We don’t have too many islands of such nature where exclusive private resorts are possible,” he informed.
Talking about intra-island connectivity, the Lt. Governor said that besides ferry boats and ships, the Administration also operates helicopters. He said that tendering process to bring back the sea plane services are currently on. He also spoke on the measures taken to improve the safety and security of tourists in the destination after the tragic incident of a ferry boat being capsized last year. “The Administration acted quickly and devised stringent rules, which changed the safety situation drastically in the last one year,” he informed. (Courtesy: P Krishna Kumar)
