Tag: china

Maldives hosts networking event for Asian travel reps

The Maldives is currently hosting representatives from over 30 tour and travel companies from across Asia, as part of a ‘Discover Your Island’ campaign to increase tourism from these countries.

The representatives were flown to Male’ by Singapore Airlines, while airport developer GMR and the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) set up a networking event with local resort and tour operators at Nasandhura Palace Hotel.

Speaking at the launch of the event, MD of the MMPRC Simon Hawkins observed that tourism arrivals had grown 15 percent year on year, and Maldives was expecting to reach one million visitors a year by November 2012.

“We currently spend US$2 million to bring in one million visitors. By comparison Indonesia spends US$70 million to bring in seven million,” he said.

The Maldives had historically based its marketing strategy on the twin drawcards of sun and sand, but need to differentiate itself given increasing competition with other destinations offering the same attributes, he said.

“One island one resort means that in the Maldives you can have a three star resort within several hundred metres of a six star resort, and everyone is happy and satisfied,” he said, explaining that most other beach destinations had roads, hawkers and crowded beaches.

“In the Maldives [tour and travel] operators have a hundred islands to choose from.”

In spite of the jet-lag, representatives spent the better part of two hours exchanging business cards with local resorts and travel operators,, reviewing services and exploring new opportunities.

Several representatives expressed interest in Hawkin’s suggestions for Maldives tourism, such as an increased focus on the high quality dining offered by many resorts and safari operators, and emphaised that individualising the customer’s experience was a priority.

Marketing and communications managers at the event meanwhile said that growing interest from the Asian market was driving their plans for the future. But other resort representatives indicated that adapting to emerging markets had to be achieved without alienating existing, established markets.

“The new Asian demand is very important, but the resorts that were designed to suit European travelers are trying to find a balance,” said Reethi Rah Sales Executive, Stephen Cordebas. “We don’t want European guests, especially those who come regularly, to feel like the whole package is changing to suit a new market.”

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China leads Maldives’ 18 percent tourism boom

Over 700,000 tourists visited the Maldives in the first seven months of 2011, the majority of visitors from China.

The Tourism Ministry has released data showing that the number of tourists who visited the Maldives between January and July 2011 increased by 18.3 percent to 520,483. This was compared to the 439,864 tourists who visited the Maldives during the same period last year.

Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) Secretary General, Mohamed Maleeh Jamal, told Minivan News that the timing of Europe’s economic decline matches that of the growing Chinese market. Asia’s high season corresponds with Europe’s low season, he said, and resorts are now catering more to Chinese tourists to keep business up.

Jamal also noted that airlines such as Qatar Airways had increased direct service to the Maldives in the last 10 months. He also noted that more airports are being constructed closer to resort islands, such as in Baa Atoll.

“The President has also decided to increase the marketing budget from US$1.5 million to US$7 million, since we expect the industry’s growth to continue,” said the MATATO secretary general.

Statistics show that Chinese tourists dominated the market in the first seven months with 103,734 individuals, accounting for 19.9 percent of the total arrivals. The United Kingdom was the second-largest contributor to tourism arrivals, composing 11.7 percent of the market.

Jamal forecasted “phenomenal growth” in the Chinese market, and estimated that the Chinese would account for 40 percent of the total tourists in coming years.

The Maldives currently hosts over 100 resorts boasting a total of 22,000 beds. Jamal said 3-4 more resorts were currently under construction, and noted that it was important “to always have excess demand and limited rooms to keep the appeal of the Maldives up.”

Secretary General of the Maldives Association of the Tourism Industry (MATI), Ibrahim Mohamed Sim, was more guarded on the issue. Sim told Minivan News that “we are holding steady in growth, but the market looks mixed since the decline of the US economy could affect our traditional European markets.”

Italy and the UK, formerly leading contributors to the Maldivian tourism industry, have declined, said Sim, but Germany was holding steady.

Sim said the demand from China was significant, and that the Maldives “is in a very lucky position to have the chance to meet that demand.”

Sources in the Chinese media and Mandarin-language tourism forums have meanwhile noted the rise of practices such as segregation of Chinese visitors from other guests at meal times.

Sim commented that although he did not believe there was segregation, the Chinese “stand out, they come here for a different reason than most tourists. They do not come here to sun tan, they come here to see a different place.” He noted that some resorts were also designed to specifically appeal to different groups.

Another recent event in the Maldives’ tourism industry was its withdrawal from the New7Wonders competition.

Jamal told Minivan News, “we think it was a loss that the Maldives pulled out. New7Wonders was a marketing tool, and major tourism companies were competing for the award.”

However he said he did not think that the Maldives’ decision had affected the tourism industry.

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Sri Lanka must take cue from Maldives’ tourism tactic: Sunday Times

Sri Lanka’s The Sunday Times reviews successes and risks in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, highlighting the Maldives as an example of successful marketing in a tight economy.

“Sri Lanka could take a cue from the Maldives where active promotion in going on to promote the destination, additionally now as a mid-market destination, from a high-end location. Resorts in the Maldives charges rates from US$200-300 upwards to over $1000 per night, and the authorities are now looking to attract the mid-market clientele which is also Sri Lanka’s market – though the two markets have different attractions.”

Adverse publicity is a weakness for Sri Lankan tourism, the Times noted, citing the Maldives as an example of proactive marketing in a time of change.

“[The Maldives] islands are attracting thousands of Chinese, which has made China the biggest source market for the Maldives in the past two years. According to one travel agent in the Maldives, ‘every agent is scrambling to get a slice of the Chinese market.’ The Chinese are seen as the biggest tourism source market of the world while India is also becoming a huge travel market. Sri Lankan hotels are still western-oriented with a few frills to meet the needs of other travellers.”

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Chinese-Indian rivalry strikes Maldives: Jakarta Post

The May 28-31 visit to the Maldives by the most senior Chinese official ever to visit the Islamic archipelago-nation went largely unreported in the Western media, writes Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe for the Jakarta Post.

“The significance of the visit by Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, underscored the increasing importance of the Maldives to China’s regional strategic calculations.

China and the Maldives first established diplomatic relations in 1972. Since then, relations have gradually developed. More recently, Indian policy analysts referred to China’s soft power rise throughout South Asia as a “creeping expansionism”. They went so far as to accuse China of harboring ambitions to set up a submarine base facility in the Maldives.

For instance, in 2005, Indian commentator, A.B. Mahapatra, asserted that: “China has engineered a manner of a coup by coaxing Maldives’ Abdul Gayoom government to let it establish a base in Marao”.

Marao is one of the largest of the 1192 coral islands grouped into atolls that comprise Maldives and lies 40 km south of Male, the capital.

[Minivan News unsure to which island this is referring, as no such island is listed in the Maldives]

Scientists warn that global warming is pushing up ocean and sea levels. They fear that most of Maldives will be submerged by year 2040. Marao may be one of the few large islands that may survive.

“And even if it goes under water”, said a naval official, “it will be ideal for submarines.”

In February 2001, a small delegation from Pakistan visited Maldives to boost cultural ties. “The Pakistanis put pressure on Male to facilitate Chinese plans for a naval base,” said an official. “China used Pakistan to play the Islamic card with Maldives. But the Marao base is not expected to be operational until 2010.”

President Gayoom ruled the Maldives for around 30 years. Following his election defeat in November 2008, his successor, President Mohamed Nasheed, has shown greater willingness to accommodate Indian interests.

As reported widely in the Indian media in late 2009, the Maldives acceded to India’s request to deploy 26 coastal radars to monitor its territorial waters.

“India is not trying to influence us. We wanted the radars. A lot of biomass poaching (poaching of fish and corals) happens in the area. So does a lot of illegal commercial fishing,” President Nasheed said.

Latterly, it transpired that India’s coast guard and naval vessels would patrol the Maldives’ territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, and a private Indian company was contracted to refurbish the former British Gan Island air base for use by Indian reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.

Trade in minerals and energy, worth many billions of dollars annually, passes near the Maldives, which is strategically located astride the major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. It is hardly surprising therefore that former Indian diplomat Kuldeep Sahdev mentioned: “It is a country of immense strategic importance to us.”

Historically, India has long seen the islands as within its sphere of influence and has sought to underwrite the security of the Maldives.

This was demonstrated in November 1988, when heavily armed ethnic-Tamil militants staged a coup to oust President Gayoom, but were rapidly intercepted and neutralized by expeditionary forces dispatched by India.

More recently, in February 2011, President Nasheed made a tour of India to enhance cooperation in trade, investment and security, and chose to use the opportunity to reiterate his pro-India stance.

“Maintaining balance in the Indian Ocean is very important. There is not enough room in the Indian Ocean for other non-traditional friends,” he said. “We are not receptive to any installation, military or otherwise, in the Indian Ocean, especially from un-traditional friends. The Indian Ocean is the Indian Ocean.”

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China-Maldives bilateral trade volume reaches US$64 million: People’s Daily

Bilateral trade between China and the Maldives reached US$64 million last year, on the back of a boom in Chinese tourist arrivals, up 56 percent on 2009, writes Liao Zhengjun for the Chinese newspaper The People’s Daily.

“China has actively encouraged successful domestic enterprises to participate in the Maldives’ infrastructure construction and other projects. With preferential loans from the Chinese government, a Chinese company is now busy constructing the 1,000 Housing Units Project in the Maldives, the largest economic and trade cooperation project since the two countries established diplomatic relations.

“The project is expected to greatly alleviate the overcrowding in Male, the capital of the Maldives. “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” and the two countries have stood by each other at all times and under all circumstances. China provided immediate assistance to the Maldives when it was hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and the Maldives also offered a helping hand shortly after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

As the cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have been steadily expanding in recent years, tourism has become an emerging area for the bilateral cooperation. More and more Chinese people see the Maldives as a favorable tourist destination. According to statistics from the Maldives government, the Maldives received nearly 120,000 Chinese tourists in 2010, marking that China has become its largest source country of foreign tourists.”

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China’s top legislator visits parliament, President

China’s top legislator Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo met today with his Maldivian counterpart, Speaker of the Majlis and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Abdulla Shahid.

Wu is the highest ranking Chinese diplomat to visit the Maldives, and major streets in Male’ were lined with Maldivian and Chinese flags to mark his arrival.

During a meeting held inside the parliament, Shahid thanked Wu for the aid the Chinese government has offered to the Maldives over the past years, and spoke about strengthening diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Wu used the occasion to announce a doubling of Chinese aid to the Maldives to 100 million yuan (US$15.4 million), and said China would be opening an embassy in the country.

He also announced that China would offer 11 scholarships to Maldivian students in 2011 and 2012. Furthermore, Chinese flights would begin operating directly to the Maldives from different parts of China.

During his visit to the Majlis, Wu’s delegation presented parliament with 77 laptops (one for each MP), 50 cameras, and two 55-inch plasma TVs.

Wu also met President Mohamed Nasheed and signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation between China and the Maldives.

Foreign Policy Advisor and former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed observed to Minivan News that the visit of such a senior Chinese dignitary represented a major development in the diplomatic and economic relationship between the two countries.

“The main interests China has in the Maldives are our support of the One China policy, and greater collaboration on climate change,” Dr Shaheed said, noting that next year would be the 40th year of Chinese engagement with the Maldives.

Chinese tourism arrivals in the Maldives last year exceeded those of the country’s traditional European market. Dr Shaheed explained that the Chinese government’s endorsement of the Maldives was integral to growing the market.

“It’s very important to have official approval – we had to ask and obtain permission to accept large groups [of Chinese tourists] to the Maldives,” Dr Shaheed said. “Even beyond tourism, China is a huge market and is increasingly visible in our region.”

He disputed that the Maldives had to balance its engagement with China with its diplomatic relationship with India.

“I don’t think we have to walk a tight-rope. We are firstly a SAARC member country, and China’s friendship is about broader global interest rather than regional,” he explained.

“The Maldives has been very active on the international stage in areas that are relevant to China, such as climate change and human rights, and China may see us as an important country to engage.”

While China had not lobbied the Maldives on issues relating to human rights, Dr Shaheed observed that Maldives last year declined to accept Chinese Guantanamo Bay detainees due to concerns expressed by China. Instead, the Maldives had switched its consideration to Palestinian detainees.

China has been very active in Sri Lanka, recently establishing a naval facility following the country’s defeat of Tamil separtists. Dr Shaheed said he did not believe the Maldives would follow suit.

“I do not think we are on the radar for a base,” he said. “We’ve made our position clear that we have longstanding policy not to host foreign troops in the Maldives. Sri Lanka has only recently been exposed to many other countries, whereas we have broader options.”

While Chinese involvement in the Maldives was unlikely to reach Sri Lankan levels, Dr Shaheed predicted that the doubling of Chinese aid would make its presence “much more visible.”

China’s aid specialities, he noted, were infrastructure projects such as roads and housing projects, which would likely increase with the country’s doubled commitment.

China has already donated the Foreign Ministry and the recently-opened Maldives National Museum – one of the biggest buildings in Male’.

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Top Chinese legislator visiting Maldives

China’s top legislator, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo, is visiting the Maldives until May 31.

Wu is the most senior Chinese diplomat to ever visit the island nation, and Chinese and Maldivian flags have been set up along major streets of Male’.

Chinese news agency Xinhua interviewed Wu’s Maldivian counterpart Abdulla Shahid, who visited the chairman in China in January.

“It was a very fruitful meeting. The fact that the chairman is conducting a visit to Maldives so soon after my visit shows the importance that the chairman and China attach to Maldives,” Shahid told Xinhua.

“Next year we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Maldives and China. Maldives and China have outstanding relations based on mutual trust, respect and friendship which is a solid foundation for any strong relationship. There are now direct flights between Maldives and China, which has increased the number of tourists from China to Maldives.”

Chinese tourist arrivals last year topped the Maldives’ traditional European market. Both the foreign ministry and the national museum were built with Chinese aid.

Chairman Wu will meet journalists tomorrow at the Maldives’ parliament building.

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Industry fears easing over impact of protest publicity on Chinese market

Industry concerns that last week’s protests and Hong Kong’s subsequent travel alert would affect the growing Chinese tourism market in the Maldives have eased.

Sources at the Arabian Travel Market held in Dubai last week expressed concern at a number of cancellations from tour operators in the Asian region following the issue of the alert, which placed the Maldives alongside Israel, Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.

A major Shanghai-based tour operator said today that despite 10 cancellations last week during the widely publicised protests, the situation had improved and bookings were improving this week.

However Minivan News understands that one major international airline operating to the Maldives suffered a 20 percent cancellation on booked and reserved tickets from several countries in the region last week, and expressed concern that communication with operators regarding future business had also suffered.

Locally, Manager of Traders Hotel Ester Marcaida said the hotel had received no cancellations as a result of the protests, “although it is possible it may have affected future bookings. So far so good.”

Traders is a bellweather as it accommodates many charter passengers from China transiting to seaplane after arriving from the Asian region – most international airlines arrive in the evening and passengers must overnight in Male.

“It’s a sizeable business for us,” Marcaida said, adding that “charters from Singapore and Malaysia haven’t been affected.”

The Maldives Ambassador to China, Ahmed Latheef, said he had been assured by Chinese tourism authorities that it did not intend to issue a travel alert for the Maldives, unless advised to do so by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It is true there was some effect from media coverage of the protests in Male’,” he said, “but it was not as bad as it could have been. The travel alert was only for Hong Kong – there was no alert for mainland China.”

There had been some concern expressed by travel agencies sending tourists to the Maldives, he noted, although the numbers were down as it was not high season for Chinese travellers.

“One tour operator called to say he’d seen a travel alert in Hong Kong and wanted to find out the situation,” Latheef said. “We did what we could and sent out a circular explaining that the tourist resorts were far from Male’ where the protests were occurring.”

Rise of the dragon

China is a major emerging market for the Maldives and is now the country’s leading tourism market in terms of arrivals, eclipsing the UK last year and offsetting a slump in the European market due to the economic recession.

The Maldives received 120,000 Chinese visitors in 2010, an increase of 96 percent on 2009.

Most tourists from the region stay relatively briefly – four nights is the average stay – and spend an average of US$2500: a gross input to the economy of US$300 million.

“If you look at the numbers they speak for themselves,” Latheef told Minivan News. “The Chinese market will be very important – there is so much interest in the Maldives.”

Latheef explained that the Chinese market was attracted to the Maldives not only because of the beach and the sun – a major drawcard for those trapped in the European winter.

“It also carries a lot of prestige in China to say you have been to the Maldives,” he said. “It carries status. A lot of people have increasing spending power, and have been to many European countries. The Maldives is much sought-after and very popular.”

Resorts had been slow to react and cater to the market, but had noticeably increased efforts to hire Mandarin-speaking staff, he noted.

“The Chinese have specific requirements of which we have to be mindful,” he said. “They prefer Chinese food, and they feel safer if there are staff who speak Mandarin as many only speak their own language. There are a lot of things that need attention.”

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Special Envoy leaves for China

The President’s Special Envoy Ibrahim Hussain Zaki has left for China in the wake of several travel warnings in the region that may be impacting Chinese arrivals to the Maldives.

The President’s Office said the visit was at the invitation of the Chinese government to explore further avenues for cooperation between the Maldives and China.

Zaki will meet Vice Minister of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Ai Ping and Deputy Governor of Export Import Bank of China Su Hong. He will also visit Tianjin City and Chengdu of Sichuan Province.

He will be accompanied by Parliamentary Group Leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party Moosa Manik, Minister of State for Economic Development Ahmed Mujthaba, Undersecretary at the President’s Office Eman Hussain and Major Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives National Defence Force.

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