Record tourists, 75-year leases, ₹15K jobs: who really owns island tourism?

The Andaman Angle · Stories the islands must talk about

Tourist numbers have tripled in three years. The five-star leases now run for 75 years. And islanders are being trained, mostly, to carry the trays. A look at who sits where in the trade the islands now live on.

By Citizen Reporter, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair)

October 2026 · Andaman Insights citizen journalism series, Story 2

A small tourist boat on the sea off Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Andaman Islands — A tourist boat off Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Andamans. Photo: makemysaffar.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

On 26 November 2025, the Administration’s own newspaper, The Daily Telegrams, carried a proud line from the Tourism Secretary: on islands with a population of about 4 lakh, she said, “we welcomed 7.2 lakh visitors.”

The same edition carried the classifieds. A travel company in Sri Vijaya Puram wanted sales executives with at least two years of experience. Salary: “15K + Incentive.”

The minimum wage notified for even an unskilled worker at that time was ₹647 a day. I do not know what the incentives add, and one advert proves nothing on its own. But anyone who has looked for work in our tourism trade will recognise the picture. The boom is real. The pay at the bottom is thin.

Story 1 asked why island children grow up to serve, not to lead. This week: who owns the industry they are being trained to serve in.

The boom is real

The Tourism Department’s figures, reported by PTI, show domestic arrivals rising from 2,35,061 in 2022 to 7,10,397 in 2024. The Lt. Governor said on Independence Day that 2025 brought 8.13 lakh tourists, the highest ever, and that the first half of 2026 was 14.5% ahead of the year before.

Since August, though, trade groups and the Congress party have said high airfares are leaving rooms vacant and boats idle. That is next week’s story.

At the top: 75-year leases

In December 2025 the Administration finalised tenders for five-star eco-resorts under public-private partnership. Per PTI, Long Island is a ₹391 crore project with up to 220 rooms, Shaheed Dweep ₹172 crore with 120 rooms, and Aves Island ₹36 crore with 50 rooms. The Megapode Resort in Sri Vijaya Puram is being redeveloped too.

The concessions run for 75 years (50 for Megapode). The government gets a revenue share of 2% to 3.6%, on top of an annual concession fee. The Lt. Governor has said the agreements are now signed, and a golf course, a business hotel and a glamping site are next.

Let me be fair. Earlier bidding rounds, from 2018 to 2021, drew no viable bids. The islands need capital that local businesses do not have, and the new bids came in at three to ten times the reserve price. Officials say the projects will create “direct and indirect employment”.

But none of the public reports I found name the winning companies, give a job number, or mention any condition on hiring islanders or buying from island suppliers. If such clauses exist, they should be published. Seventy-five years is three generations of islanders.

In the middle: nobody counts

What about the hotels, dive shops and travel desks already here? The Administration’s Basic Statistics 2024-25 lists 3 star hotels, 443 non-star hotels, 86 homestays, 25 registered tour operators and 94 scuba dive operators for 2023-24. It has no column for who owns them, or for how many people they employ.

Homestays are the one part of the trade run by residents by design. There are now more than 100 registered. Yet the Tourism Department held its first meeting bringing all homestay owners onto one platform only in August 2025.

How many tourism businesses are owned by islanders? How many islanders do they employ, and at what pay? I searched. These figures are not public.

At the bottom: the workers

Ask who depends on tourism and the answer is a long list. Congress leader TSG Bhasker named hotel staff, scuba and boat operators, taxi drivers, guides and laundry workers. He said young people who took loans for boats and vehicles are struggling to repay them now that arrivals have dipped. That is a party’s claim; there is no official count to check it against.

The job adverts tell the same story: drivers, room boys, reservation staff, sales executives. From 1 July 2026 the minimum wage is ₹660 a day for unskilled work and ₹947 for the highly skilled. I could not find any public statement from an association speaking for hospitality employees. Owners have associations. Their staff are mostly unheard.

Skilling for service, not ownership

The skilling on offer follows the same ladder. In July 2026, IHCL, Tata STRIVE and ANIIDCO launched a programme to certify 250 existing hospitality workers in front office, food and beverage service, housekeeping, kitchen operations, multi-cuisine cooking, bakery and guest house operations.

The Tourism Department, with IITTM, ran a 12-day tour guide course for 100 youth in March 2025 and an eco-tour guide course in March 2026. The Lt. Governor said 95 youth were trained as astro-tourism guides. In May 2026, nine Karen youth from Mayabunder earned PADI diving certification in a police-facilitated programme.

All of this is useful, and I welcome it. But add it up: guides, divers, cooks, housekeepers. Only “guest house operations” comes near to running a business. None of the public programmes I found teaches how to bid for a concession, raise a bank loan, price a package, or market a homestay online.

We are training islanders to work in the new resorts. Nobody is training them to own the next one.

What must change, and who must do it

The Administration and ANIIDCO

Publish the names of the concessionaires and the employment and local-purchase terms of each 75-year agreement.
Write local-hiring targets and island-supplier quotas into the Phase 2 tenders now being prepared.
Keep small sites in Phase 2, such as the budget resort and cultural village at Raman Bagicha or camping at Aamkunj, for island cooperatives, homestay groups and local startups.

Tourism Department and Directorate of Economics and Statistics

Add ownership (local or not) and employment to the yearly tourism tables. One question on the registration form would do it.

Skilling agencies

For every service course, run an enterprise course: costing, GST, online marketing, bank finance. Train dive instructors and dive-centre managers, not only divers.

Island operators

Pay at least the notified minimum, and say so in your adverts. Good workers stay where they are treated well.

Back to the advert

“15K + Incentive.” The visitor count will keep climbing; the Administration has shown it can bring in investors and tourists. The question for the next 75 years is different. Will islanders own the boat, or only steer it?

More next week.

A note from Andaman Insights: We started this platform for impact, not only for revenue. We are islanders writing about our own home. If you are a teacher, a parent or a young person with a story like this, we want to hear it.

Sources

Read more from The Andaman Angle. This is Story 2 of our citizen journalism series. Browse the rest on The Andaman Angle, get the week’s island business news in Andaman Business Weekly, or subscribe free to have each story sent to you.

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Record tourists, 75-year leases, ₹15K jobs: who really owns island tourism?

The boom is real

At the top: 75-year leases

In the middle: nobody counts

At the bottom: the workers

Skilling for service, not ownership

What must change, and who must do it

Back to the advert

Sources

2 thoughts on “Record tourists, 75-year leases, ₹15K jobs: who really owns island tourism?”

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The boom is real

At the top: 75-year leases

In the middle: nobody counts

At the bottom: the workers

Skilling for service, not ownership

What must change, and who must do it

Back to the advert

Sources

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2 thoughts on “Record tourists, 75-year leases, ₹15K jobs: who really owns island tourism?”

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply