Andaman 2.0

Andaman Islands – The last time you gave this place a thought was probably in a geography class back in school. We don’t hear about the islands much and most don’t seem to care. However, the islands are still a part of our country and possibly the most beautiful at that. Endless white sandy shores, contrasting turquoise waters, and lush forestation grace the islands and exhibit a panorama so beautiful, that it could easily be serious competition to any other world-class travel destination.

But that alone doesn’t define the place. Besides the stunning spectacle that’s on offer, the place is brimming with exhilarating water-sports, iconic history, and varied culture. And with Andamans being home to the 8th best beach in the world, we don’t think that its tourism potential needs further validation.

On the other hand, lack of inadequate infrastructure, destination branding, and Internet connectivity are the main reasons slowing the growth of travel and tourism in Andamans. We at Go2Andaman.com see this as an opportunity! We have chosen to work around these problems and come up with solutions that ultimately help tourism industry grow exponentially.

Ground Reality

When compared to the beginning of the decade, there has been a radical rise in the inflow of tourists travelling to the Andamans. The graph above shows that in 2015, over 0.3 million tourists visited the islands and in just another year, the numbers soared to 0.4 million. If we compare our market to other tourism hotspots, Andamans, which is still at a nascent stage, isn’t far behind.

As the tourism volumes are growing, numerous resorts and services are building infrastructure each day, which is increasing the overall capacity of the islands. But the other side of the coin is, that Andaman Islands are an unorganised market and there are other factors stalling the growth of tourism. Some of the prominent problems are:

• Little Adoption to Technology: With Internet facility (satellite bandwidth – much lower than basic broadband speed) only in select islands, vendors find it difficult to market their offerings online, thus, affecting their business volumes. The internet situation is likely to normalize in next three years as work for Optical Fiber Cable connectivity from Chennai to Port Blair has been initiated by the Govt. of India.
• Discovery & Brand Marketing: Despite being home to the best beach in Asia and having some of the finest diving and game fishing sites in the world, we feel that Andamans as a brand hasn’t been marketed well enough. With insufficient and sometimes fragmented information on the web, travelers are unable to discover everything the islands have to offer.
• Unorganized Operations: With most businesses being family-run ventures and not professionally managed, the business operations remain unorganized.
• Growth of Select Businesses: Though big Online Travel Agents have played a huge role in developing tourism, they essentially have worked with very selective businesses, mostly leaving behind first-rate but small service providers in the market.

Our Solution

We at Go2Andaman.com are working on providing a holistic solution to the travel industry in the Andaman. We are creating a model bringing together all travel businesses (hotels, activities, transport, and travel agents among others) of the islands on one single travel-marketplace that would then be connected with buyers all over the world.

Once functional, our model will enable –

a) travelers to discover and buy local travel products with trust and
b) sellers to sell to a larger market and grow their business.

How Can You Help Us

• If you believe in the tourism potential of the Andaman Islands and have the money to back up our vision, we are raising our first round.
• Connect us to your travel fraternity friends who might be interested to work with us
• Help us spread the word; connect us to your media and PR friends

Go2andaman.com has been founded by Umang Sonthalia & Snehal Kanodia. Being brought up in the islands and having worked there, Umang understands the dynamics of the travel industry. He also has experience in single-handledly managing F&B business in the islands with a team of 60+ employees for over 3 years. Snehal is a photographer who has travelled extensively in Andaman Islands. She is also a graduate in commerce from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata and later completed her post-grad in Photography from Shristi School of Arts & Design, Bangalore. Earlier they also co-founded Mad Over Marketing – a marketing content repository. Umang can be reached on umang@go2andaman.com