“Maldives lied”: New7wonders controversy continues in South Korea

A documentary regarding New7Wonders, aired on South Korean national broadcaster KBS, has drawn on the Maldives’ experience with the foundation and ignited controversy in the country regarding the nature of the competition.

Korea’s Jeju island was announced as one of the winners in the competition, along with the Amazon rainforest, Vietnam’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, Indonesia’s Komodo, the Philippines’ Puerto Princesa underground river, and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

Votes were collected online and via paid SMS and phone voting in the various countries, in collaboration with telecom sponsors. Final vote counts for the winners were not revealed, however New7Wonders maintains that the process is “uniquely democratic”.

Following the airing of the program in South Korea, founder of the Swiss-based New7Wonders operation and self-described filmmaker, museum curator, aviator and explorer, Bernard Weber, visited the country to denounce it.

“Only a few reporters were able to attend the conference due to the short notice,” noted the Korea Herald.

“Since the announcement [about Jeju] was made, however, media outlets and activists here have been raising suspicions concerning the foundation’s identity, the money Jeju spent to be chosen and whether it was fair for government officials to take part in the voting multiple times,” the paper reported.

During the press conference, President of the Jeju Tourism Organisation Yang Young-keun revealed that Jeju residents and tourism officials spent 20 billion won (US$18 million) on international phone voting for the competition.

“With the tourism industry accounting for more than 80 percent of Jeju’s economy, 20 billion won does not seem like an unreasonably large amount of money,” Yang added.

Park Dae-seok, an official at Korea’s National Committee for Jeju New7Wonders of Nature, was also quoted as stating that “with Jeju’s 500,000 people, it would have been impossible to have the island named the New Seven Wonders and it is only fair to allow multiple voting in this sense.”

The Maldives’ cabinet announced it was withdrawing from the competition in May 2011, after claiming to have received unexpected demands for cash not explicitly specified in the original contract, in order to continue to “compete meaningfully” in the competition.

Indonesia followed suit, with the country’s tourism authorities announcing the withdrawal of Komodo from the running. In both instances, New7wonders insisted that the Maldives and Komodo remained in the competition while seeking new promoters in both countries.

Demands included ‘sponsorship fees’ (‘platinum’ at US$350,000, or two ‘gold’ at US$210,000 each) and the funding of a ‘World Tour’ event whereby the Maldives would pay for a delegation of people to visit the country, provide hot air balloon rides, press trips, flights, accommodation and communications.

In a comment piece published on Minivan News, New7wonders spokesman Eamonn Fitzgerald responded that the authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign “is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency.”

“With the Maldives still a finalist, the critical choice to be made by the key decision-makers in the Maldives is whether to support the campaign or not,” Fitzgerald said at the time.

“I think that it would be a good idea for all the leaders in the Maldives to be active participants in the campaign for the simple reason that it makes good business sense. After all, this is why so many countries, with their public and private sectors, are enthusiastically involved in this global event.”

Voting controversy

Besides Jeju in South Korea, other winning countries responded energetically to the campaign, notably developing countries with large populations desperate to boost tourism revenue.

Vietnam’s central bank in November 2011 sent an urgent communication to the country’s financial institutions, urging them to force their employees to vote for Vietnam’s Halong Bay in the New7wonders competition.

According to the UK’s Financial Times, staff at one of Vietnam’s state-run bank were set quotas of 600 paid SMS votes each.

“Vietnamese officials, perhaps mindful of the growing importance of tourism to the economy, are going the extra mile to try to secure victory, pulling on the many control levers available to the pervasive Communist party,” the FT reported.

However some Vietnamese tourism officials cited by the FT raised concerns about the country’s expenditure on paid voting to win the competition, suggesting that the money and time “would be better spent cleaning up the worsening pollution in Halong Bay, raising safety standards on tour boats after two fatal sinkings in recent years and improving the overall environment for tourism.”

President of the Philippines, Noynoy Aquino, also urged his population to hit the phones and vote for the Puerto Princesa Underground River.

“In the Philippines we have no less than 80 million cellphone users sending nearly 2 billion text messages every day. All we need is one billion votes, so that is half a day,” Aquino said, during the river’s campaign push – a commitment of US$58 million, at PHP2.50 (US$0.058) a vote.

In the Maldives, the Swiss foundation approached telecom provider Dhiraagu seeking US$1 million in sponsorship to be its telecom partner in the Maldives, a figure that dropped by half when the company complained that the price was too high.

In a recorded interview with Korean journalists, obtained by Minivan News, Bernard Weber defends the sponsorship as “not a requirement, but a proposition.”

New7Wonders Director, Jean-Paul de la Fuente, interjects: “The Maldives people basically lied. They said if they did not bring sponsors we had threatened they would be expelled from the campaign. That’s a lie. There was no conditional sponsorship, and the proof is that five of the seven winners had no sponsors.”

Fuente continued: “The reason the Maldives person lied is because he had a personal financial interest in another business. What he did was show selected documents that clearly said there was no condition. When he resigned an alternative civic group tried to become a new committee, and he threatened them not to become a new committee.

“Unfortunately the Maldives was until recently a dictatorship, and maybe they still have some of the bad habits of a dictatorship. But we are absolutely clear that the Maldives lied,” Fuente said, and identified Managing Director of the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC), Simon Hawkins, as “the main problem.”

In response, Hawkins told Minivan News today that “the only financial incentive and gain was to save the country over 500,000 US dollars for ridiculous charges from a disreputable organisation, and I succeeded. The Cabinet did their own investigation and reached their own conclusions, which was the same as ours. I also fail to see how Mr Weber can say that we were lying with the concrete evidence against him.”

Following the Maldives’ withdrawal, New7wonders approached the Maldives Association of Tourism and Travel Operators (MATATO) to take over from the MMPRC as the organising committee of the Maldives’ campaign – a move opposed by the MMPRC, as “the democratically elected Government of the Maldives is the only legitimate authority to act in the name of the Maldives and its people”.

Secretary General of MATATO, Maleeh Jamal, said at the time that the association was considering taking over the event in the government’s stead, as the studies offered by New7Wonders promised an “enormous return on investment”, and “US$500,000 for such an award would be quickly recovered. Although the money was a concern, we had a fair chance of winning,” he said at the time.

Asked today whether the MMPRC had threatened MATATO not to continue in the competition, Jamal said he did not wish to comment: “It was a huge controversy and now the whole saga is over,” he said.

Business model

The studies referred to by MATATO were also referenced by Fitzgerald in a letter to Minivan News following the cabinet decision to withdraw:

  1. Study published by Pearson of London in April 2010: US$5 billion overall in economic, tourism and brand image values for the participants and winners in the man-made New 7 Wonders of the World campaign;
  2. Study published by Grant Thornton of South Africa in April 2011: US$1.012 billion each in economic and employment value for the first five years for being successful in the New7Wonders of Nature;
  3. New study published by JDI of South Korea in May 2011: up to US$1.837 billion each per annum in economic benefits for being successful in the New7Wonders of Nature.

The New 7 Wonders of Nature was the second competition of its kind to be held by the foundation. The first, concerning man-made wonders of the world, awarded the title to Chichen Itza in Mexico, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Colosseum in Rome, Great Wall in China, Machu Picchu in Peru, Petra in Jordan, and the Taj Mahal in India. The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt – one of the original 7 wonders, was eventually awarded an honorary title after the Ministry of Tourism complained.

Following Indonesia’s decision to withdraw Komodo, Indonesian blogger Priyadi Nurcahyo Faith collected 15 years of tourism statistics for three of the winning attractions in the first competition, as well as national tourism arrivals, and graphed them in an attempt to correlate the effect of winning the competition.

Visitor numbers to 2007 New 7 Wonders winners. Source: Priyardi's Place

Machu Picchu recorded high growth in (overseas) visitors between 1998 and 2000 of over 20 percent a year. Visitor numbers slumped over 16 percent in 2001, returning to 40 percent in 2005. By 2006, visitors had plunged to 1.14 percent. In 2007 – the year Machu Picchu was announced a winner of the New 7 wonders competition, it had risen to 14 percent, slowing to 12 percent in 2008. In 2009 growth plunged 5 percent, worsening to 18 percent in 2010. Overall arrivals to Peru increased 41 percent in 2004, and 14 percent in the year of the competition. Arrivals dropped 4 percent in 2009.

The Taj Mahal in India showed a broadly similar trend. Foreign visitors increased dramatically 62 percent in 2005, before plunging 17 percent the following year. In 2007, visitor numbers grew 19 percent, but in 2008 the increase was less that 1 percent. Visitors dropped almost 17 percent in 2009. The increase in tourism arrivals to India as a whole continued a downward trend from 13 percent in 2005 to 7 percent in 2008.

Petra, which recorded both foreign and domestic visitors, saw a significant spike in 2007 of over 60 percent, building on a broadly positive trend from a dramatic increase of 93 percent in 2004. Visitors increased 38 percent in 2008, dropped nine percent in 2009, and increased 34 percent in 2010.

At the same time, overall visitors to Jordan dropped 3 percent in 2007, despite almost 19 percent growth the year before.

The blogger’s conclusion was that the New 7 Wonders contribution to visitor numbers was difficult to correlate amid other factors – but was likely “not so significant”.

The controversy surrounding Indonesia and the Maldives’ withdrawal from the competition, and most recently the growing attention in South Korea, has sparked interest in the foundation’s business model.

A ‘New7Wonders Foundation’ is registered in the Swiss canton of Zurich as a charitable foundation, however the New7Wonders own website describes it as “a major, global-scale proof of a business concept based on mass virtual online dynamics creating concrete economic positive outcomes in the real world”.

The Maldives Tourism Ministry initially paid a US$199 participation fee and signed a contract not with the foundation, but rather a commercial arm of the operation: New Open World Corporation (NOWC), which listed its address on the contract as a law firm in the Republic of Panama.

The fate of the money paid to NOWC by tourism authorities, sponsors and telecom partners in unclear. Funds raised, the website states, are used “to set up and run the global New7Wonders voting platform, to run the first campaign that chose the Official New 7 Wonders of the World, to run the current campaign electing the Official New7Wonders of Nature, to run the New7Wonders organisation, [and] to create a surplus for distribution.”

Swiss law does not require charitable foundations to disclose how much they pay executives, unlike the UK, and no filings, declarations of assets or record of funds distributed are available on the foundation’s website.

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New7Wonders “a moneymaking exercise”: Telegraph

A campaign to find the world’s most popular natural wonders, promoted as a contribution to environmental protection, has been attacked as little more than a moneymaking exercise, reports the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.

“There have been accusations that several of the more obscure places on the ‘New7Wonders of Nature’ list, announced earlier this month, owe their ranking less to their beauty than to the readiness of tourism or marketing organisations to stump up cash – including taxpayers’ money – in their support.

“Tourism authorities in the Maldives and Indonesia, which both withdrew their backing for the project earlier this year, have cited concerns over voting methods and “hidden” costs, while Unesco – the agency of the United Nations dedicated to protecting natural and man-made sites – has repeatedly distanced itself from the project.

“A provisional list of seven wonders – including little-known islands in South Korea and the Philippines – was published on November 11. People had been encouraged to vote for free online or by paid text message to help compile it from a shortlist of 28. That shortlist had itself been whittled down from an original list of more than 400 submitted since the launch of the project in 2007 by the Zurich-based New7Wonders Foundation (N7W).

“Each of the 28 finalists had to be represented by an ‘official supporting committee (OSC)’, which was charged an initial US$199 ‘administration fee’. The government-funded Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) – which submitted the islands as a candidate – claims that organisers later demanded up to $350,000 in ‘sponsorship fees’ and hundreds of thousands more to organise an extravagant “world tour” event. The cost to the country’s economy would have been more than S$500,000.”

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New7wonders announces winners of competition

The Switzerland-based New7wonders foundation have announced the seven winners to be the Amazon rainforest, Vietnam’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, South Korea’s Jeju Island, Indonesia’s Komodo, the Philippines’ Puerto Princesa underground river, and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

The Maldives, the Dead Sea, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon did not make the final seven.

Votes were collected online and via paid SMS voting in the various countries, in collaboration with assorted telecom providers. Final vote counts for the winners were not revealed.

In an announcement aired on YouTube, New7wonders founder and self-described “filmmaker, aviator and adventurer”, Bernard Weber, stated that “once the voting validation process is completed in early 2012, we will work with the confirmed winners to organise the official inauguration events.”

Weber also announced that New7wonders would be launching a competition to determine the greatest cities in the world.

Indonesian and Maldivian tourism authorities withdrew from the competition earlier this year, citing demands for large amounts of money from New7wonders for licensing and event hosting, that had not been explicitly outlined in the original contracts.

Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Jero Wacik claimed in the Jakata Post that the decision was taken “because the organisers – the New7Wonders Foundation – have taken actions that are not professional, consistent and transparent.”

“We have spent around (US$1.1 million) on campaign activities over the past three years,” Wacik told the Jakarta Post, claiming that New7wonders had subsequently demanded a US$10 million licensing fee and a US$35 million fee to host a ceremony celebrating the competition’s winners.

Meanwhile, Maldives State Minister for Tourism Thoyyib Mohamed announced in May that the Maldives was similarly withdrawing “because of the unexpected demands for large sums of money from the New7Wonders organisers. We no longer feel that continued participation is in the economic interests of the Maldives.”

The Tourism Ministry initially paid a US$199 participation fee to New7Wonder’s commerical arm, New Open World Corporation (NOWC), registered to a law firm in the Republic of Panama.

Subsequent requests for money included ‘sponsorship fees’ (‘platinum’ at US$350,000, or two ‘gold’ at US$210,000 each), and funding of a ‘World Tour’ event whereby the Maldives would pay for a delegation of people to visit the country, provide hot air balloon rides, press trips, flights, accommodation and communications.

After complaining, the Maldives was offered a bare-bones ‘protocol visit’, but informed that winners of the previous competition had all hosted a big event.

NOWC also attempted to charge telecom provider Dhiraagu US$1 million for the right to participate in the New7Wonders campaign, a fee that was dropped to half a million when the company complained about the price.

In response to the Maldives’ decision to resign from the campaign, New7wonders spokesman Eamonn Fitzgerald quoted John Donne’s ‘No man is an island’, and insisted that the Maldives remained in the competition “because the authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency.”

Following Indonesia’s decision to withdraw, Fitzgerald said that “Despite a series of malicious attacks on New7Wonders by the [Ministry of Culture and Tourism], the public and media opinion consensus in Indonesia is that the MCT should not interfere in the democratic right of the Indonesian people to vote for Komodo Island in the New7Wonders of Nature.”

“The MCT had no authority in this matter as it ceased to be the legitimate New7Wonders representative in Indonesia in February, so the announcement was absurd,” Fitzgerald said, stating that the foundation’s new representative in Indonesia was a group called P2Komodo.

“P2Komodo is an alliance of positive and forward looking members of Indonesian civil society, who are keen to ensure that Komodo Island has a fair chance of participating in the New7Wonders of Nature,” Fitzgerald said.

In the Maldives, New7wonders approached the Maldives Association of Travel and Tour Operators (MATATO), but the arrangement was never cemented.

Secretary General of MATATO, Maleeh Jamal, said at the time that the association had been in contact with New7Wonders and was considering working on the event in the government’s stead.

The studies offered by New7Wonders promised an “enormous return on investment”, Jamal suggested.

“I think US$500,000 for such an award would be quickly recovered. Although the money was a concern, we had a fair chance of winning. A lot of competing destinations, such as Australia and South Africa, are taking this competition very seriously,” Jamal said in May.

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New7Wonders runs into controversy: Guardian

The four-year long competition to name the seven wonders of the natural world has run into controversy after governments accused the organisers of asking for millions of dollars in marketing costs, reports the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

The New7Wonders of Nature poll, its organisers claim, has attracted millions of voters choosing the final seven from a shortlist of 28 natural landscapes which include the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazonian rainforest and the Maldives.

After initially paying a registration fee of $199 (£125) to enter, each country was then asked to take part in a high-profile global marketing campaign that included a world tour.

In May, the Maldives government moved to withdraw from the competition after receiving a “surprise” demand for half a million dollars. They were followed in August by the Indonesian government, representing Komodo Island national park, who said the organisers wanted $10m dollars in licensing fees and $47m dollars to host the closing ceremony.

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Comment: Komodo Island remains in New7Wonders of Nature campaign, as do the islands of Maldives

On Saturday, readers of Minivan News were greeted with the headline: “Indonesia joins Maldives in withdrawing from New7Wonders competition”.

Now, a good headline is an essential component of good journalism, but headlines don’t always reflect the complexity of a story. An alternative title for the article could have been, “Komodo Island remains in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign, as do the Islands of the Maldives”. Here’s why.

On August 11, the new Official Supporting Committee (OSC) for Komodo Island in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign was announced in Jakarta, Indonesia.

P2Komodo is led by Ms Emmy Hafild, the leading independent Indonesian environmentalist, recognised by Time magazine and the UN for her successful environmental campaigning in the past against the Suharto dictatorship. P2Komodo is an alliance of positive and forward looking members of Indonesian civil society, who are keen to ensure that Komodo Island has a fair chance of participating in the New7Wonders of Nature.

Four days later, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) of Indonesia organised a somewhat surreal press conference in Jakarta to announce the MCT’s “withdrawal of Komodo Island” from the New7Wonders of Nature.

But the MCT had no authority in this matter as it ceased to be the legitimate New7Wonders representative in Indonesia in February, so the announcement was absurd. Naturally, New7Wonders of Nature has no issue with the Indonesian MCT’s right not to be involved in the Komodo Island campaign, in the same way that we have no issue with the MMPRC agency resigning as the OSC for the islands of the Maldives in May.

By the way, the 41 Official Supporting Committees from 37 countries representing the 28 Finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature were invited, all expenses paid (including flights and accommodation) by the Indonesian MCT, to attend the press conference. Only one accepted the generous offer, Mr Simon Hawkins, the British head of the MMPRC agency. Does this mean that Maldives tourism policy is now being influenced by the money of another country? We do not know. However, the MMPRC agency shares with the Indonesian MCT the dubious distinction of both being former OSCs in the New7Wonders of Nature.

Despite a series of malicious attacks on New7Wonders by the MCT, the public and media opinion consensus in Indonesia is that the MCT should not interfere in the democratic right of the Indonesian people to vote for Komodo Island in the New7Wonders of Nature. Voting for Komodo Island itself has increased dramatically since the events of the past few days, showing quite clearly how the people of Indonesia are viewing this matter. As Emmy Hafild has said, “Indonesia is a democratic country, so the government must not prevent the Indonesian people from voting for Komodo and making it one of the New7Wonders successfully”.

We believe the same democratic rights should be extended to the people of the Maldives. Three months have passed since we accepted the resignation of the MMPRC agency, and since then we have received reports of many Maldivian people and organisations that are willing to form a new OSC, but who feel threatened and unable to exercise their civil right of freedom of expression and organisation. That’s why we recently wrote to the government of the Republic of the Maldives, requesting the assurance that it will not interfere with or threaten the formation of such a new OSC for the Islands of the Maldives, and respecting the democratic principles that now guide the nation of the Maldives. We are pleased to say that the government of the Republic of the Maldives has agreed to our request, and we received this assurance in writing on August 20.

Because we believe the time has come for everyone to move on constructively we will not comment again on the many misleading statements that have been made about New7Wonders by the MMPRC agency. Instead, we urge the positive and forward thinking members of Maldivian society to exercise their democratic right to actively support the Islands of the Maldives in the New7Wonders of Nature, like the enlightened majority members of Indonesian civil society are now doing for Komodo Island.

So, here’s the story in a headline: “Komodo Island remains in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign, as do the islands of the Maldives”.

Eamonn Fitzgerald is Head of Communication at New7Wonders

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Indonesia joins Maldives in withdrawing from New7Wonders competition

Following in the footsteps of the Maldives, Indonesia has officially withdrawn the Komodo National Park from the New7Wonders competition citing doubts about the credibility of the organisers.

During a press conference last week, Indonesia’s Tourism Minister Jero Wacik announced that the decision was taken “because the organisers – the New7Wonders Foundation – have taken actions that are not professional, consistent and transparent.”

According to reports in the Jakarta Post, Wacik said the New7Wonders Foundation was“unprofessional”, “unaccountable” and were “not credible”.

“We have spent around Rp 10 billion (US$1.1 million) on campaign activities over the past three years,” Wacik told the newspaper, claiming that the foundation had subsequently demanded a US$10 million licensing fee and a US$35 million fee to host a ceremony celebrating the competition’s winners.

Also speaking during the press conference, Indonesia’s tourism marketing director Sapta Nirwandar claimed that the New7Wonders foundation did not have an office.

“We sent a letter to the office address in Zurich, but the letter came back to us because the address was not clear,” the Post reported Nirwandar as saying, adding that it was “very strange” for an international organisation involved in million-dollar transactions “not to have a real office”.

New7Wonders has meanwhile announced the launch of a text voting service in Indonesia, allowing locals to vote for Komodo at US$0.12 per text.

The Maldives cabinet withdrew the country from the New7Wonders campaign in May, claiming similar demands for increasingly high fees in order for the Maldives to compete meaningfully for the remainder of the competition.

State Minister for Tourism Thoyyib Mohamed said at the time that the Maldives was withdrawing from the competition “because of the unexpected demands for large sums of money from the New7Wonders organisers. We no longer feel that continued participation is in the economic interests of the Maldives.”

The Maldives had invested substantially less in the campaign than Indonesia – a total of US$12,000 on banners and voting terminals – before the company behind New7Wonders, the ‘New Open World Corporation’ (NOWC), began requesting ‘sponsorship fees’ (‘platinum’ at US$350,000, or two ‘gold’ at US$210,000 each), and the funding of a ‘World Tour’ event whereby the Maldives would pay for a delegation of people to visit the country, provide hot air balloon rides, press trips, flights, accommodation and communications, at a predicted cost of US$500,000.

NOWC had initially levied a US$199 participation fee upon signing of the initial contract in early 2009, and no further costs were explicitly detailed in the contract.

Investigating the company in May, Minivan News confirmed that a ‘New7Wonders Foundation’ was registered in the Swiss canton of Zurich as a charitable foundation, however the contract signed with the Maldives gave NOWC’s address as a law firm in the Republic of Panama.

In response to this story, New7Wonders Spokesperson Eamonn Fitzgerald said the foundation had transferred the commercial operations to its licensing company, New Open World Corporation, “which then runs the commercial aspects.”

In a letter to Minivan News, Fitzgerald insisted that the the Maldives remained in the competition despite the government’s decision.

“The authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency. In this respect, New7Wonders adheres to the same principles as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), organisations that do not tolerate any government interference so as to ensure their independence,” Fitzgerald wrote.

The government responded that “the democratically elected Government of the Maldives is the only legitimate authority to act in the name of the Maldives and its people”, and that its continued use of the Maldives brand by NOWC was “infringing the sovereign rights of the Maldives”.

Following the Indonesian announcement, Minivan News understands from a source familiar with the matter that the tourism authorities of 6-7 other countries have “expressed doubts” about the competition, “but are concerned about losing face.”

Three of Indonesia’s ministers – fisheries, forestry and tourism – acknowledged that the Maldives had led the way, the source said.

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New7Wonders “infringing sovereign rights of Maldives” by keeping country in competition, claims MMPRC

The Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) has issued a statement reaffirming the Maldivian government’s decision to withdraw from the New7Wonders competition.

The statement follows claims by the Geneva-based foundation’s head of communications, Eamonn Fitzgerald, that the Maldives was still in the competition “because the authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency.”

The government withdrew from the competition on May 18, after claiming that New7Wonders’ commercial entity, New Open World Corporation (NOWC), had solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars for the country “to compete meaningfully”.

“We no longer feel that continued participation is in the economic interests of the Maldives,” said State Minister for Tourism Thoyyib Mohamed, at the time.

The MMPRC today said that a second statement was necessary “to halt any further misrepresentation by the NOWC regarding the involvement of the Maldives in their competition.”

“After the many attempts by the MMPRC to negotiate and explain our financial situation requesting a reduction of the price to meaningfully compete and stay in the competition, we  are again perplexed to learn that the NOWC are considering taking a smaller sum of money from a third party in order to keep the Maldives in the competition,” the MMPRC stated.

Secretary General Maleeh Jamal of the Maldives Association of Travel and Tourism Operators (MATATO) said yesterday that the association had been in contact with New7Wonders and was considering working on the event in the government’s stead, claiming that the competition promised “enormous return on investment”, and that “US$500,000 for such an award would be quickly recovered.”

The MMPRC today stated that “the democratically elected Government of the Maldives is the only legitimate authority to act in the name of the Maldives and its people”, as “NOWC originally sought acceptance and involvement of the Maldives in the competition with a government signature and payment.

“The Cabinet (not the MMPRC) has made the final decision to withdraw from the competition due to their findings. We feel that the continued participation of the Maldives in the NOWC competition is a matter entirely up to the democratically elected government of the country. Any infringement of this sovereign right, including continued disregard for our position on the matter, will leave us with no alternative but to seek legal recourse.”

In a recent opinion column for Minivan News, Fitzgerald argued that the MMPRC’s “unfounded complaints regarding the campaign sponsorship options have to be seen in light [of the] extraordinarily positive numbers.”

Fitzgerald referred to two “independent studies” he claimed estimated the economic benefit to each of the seven wonders as “US$1.012 billion”, and the total benefit to previous winners as “US$5 billion”.

The MMPRC stated that it “does not agree with the business arguments as quoted in the article for Minivannews.com. To imply that you can guarantee a positive response of an advertising campaign or PR stunt that is yet to happen is wholly unethical.

“The NOWC-commissioned reports and estimates cannot guarantee and secure a positive outcome for the Maldives. There are so many variable factors as to why marketing activities are successes or failures ‐ but no two scenarios are identical and so generalisations and assumptions should not be made when spending huge sums of the country’s money.”

The MMPRC highlighted several articles in the government’s contract with NOWC, noting that “the obligation to pay is determined and decided by [the Government of the Maldives] abilities and resources and that NOWC will respect this.”

“In light of our recent economic riots and financial crisis which was broadcast to the world, we feel that NOWC have totally disregarded our situation.”

The MMPRC further claimed that “despite our emails and answer phone messages to Fitzgerald, New7Wonders have refused to respond to our communications. We have also noted that their office premises appear to be empty and their colleagues with whom we previously had regular communications are no longer available.”

Fitzgerald said New7Wonders was reviewing the MMPRC’s statement, and confirmed that “all MMPRC messages to New7Wonders have been duly received and filed by us. As New7Wonders accepted the resignation of the MMPRC on May 17, this agency is no longer New7Wonders’s counterpart in the Maldives, so we have no reason to respond to it.”

He added that New7Wonders would issue a statement regarding the continued participation of the Maldives in the campaign on Thursday May 26.

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MATATO debating whether to continue New7Wonders campaign after cabinet’s withdrawal

The Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) is considering offering to support New7Wonders to promote the Maldives in the competition, following cabinet’s decision to withdraw the country’s entry.

Announcing the decision last Wednesday May 18, State Minister for Tourism Thoyyib Mohamed said the Maldives was withdrawing from the competition “because of the unexpected demands for large sums of money from the New7Wonders organisers. We no longer feel that continued participation is in the economic interests of the Maldives.”

Sponsorship packages and funding of New7Wonders’ ‘World Tour’ event would have cost the Maldives upwards of US$500,000, tourism authorities estimated, not including the millions of dollars in licensing arrangements solicited from local airlines and telecom providers.

In an opinion column for Minivan News this week, New7Wonders’ Head of Communication Eamonn Fitzgerald emphasised that Maldives was still in the competition, “because the authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency.”

Secretary General of MATATO, Maleeh Jamal, said the association had been in contact with New7Wonders and was considering working on the event in the government’s stead.

The studies offered by New7Wonders promised an “enormous return on investment”, Jamal suggested.

“I think US$500,000 for such an award would be quickly recovered. Although the money was a concern, we had a fair chance of winning,” he said. “A lot of competing destinations, such as Australia and South Africa, are taking this competition very seriously.”

Sri Lanka had recently spent millions of dollars bidding to host the Commonwealth Games, he noted, as well as hosting a film festival.

“I think a lot of these awards are, as a matter of fact, marketing tools. Not many people are going to go into detail as to whether the competition is democratic. What is important is how it can benefit the destination.”

Asked whether he predicted that MATATO would be able to negotiate a discount from New7Wonders following the government’s withdrawal, Jamal said the association had not yet discussed financial matters with the organisation.

“Some of our members have indicated that they would be willing to contribute financially and offer other support. The executive will meet and discuss it this week and decide whether to continue or discontinue,” he said.

Meanwhile Secretary General of the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Mohamed ‘Sim’ Ibrahim, said he had “no idea about New7Wonders, beyond that it has been going on for some time.”

“It sounds like a gimmick. I understood there was a lot of money involved,” he said.

“MATI will not support it financially. Like any other business people will have to judge if its worth it. We were never consulted on the matter and were never party to this – we like to keep away from things we don’t know about.“

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Comment: “No man is an island” – why the Maldives should participate in New7Wonders

“No man is an island.” That’s what the English poet John Donne said 500 years ago. He meant that people by nature belong together.

So, although we are all individuals, we are one. And even though islands may appear to be separate, they are all part of the same planet everyone shares: Earth. The New7Wonders of Nature campaign, with its goal of generating one billion votes worldwide to select seven icons of nature, represents a noble ideal in which modern communications technologies allow us to create a global community.

This is the background against which Wednesday’s statement by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has to be seen.

I have good news, however, for Maldivians and fans of the Maldives around the world: the Maldives are still in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign! That’s because the authority to withdraw a participant from the campaign is a decision for New7Wonders alone, not for any government agency. In this respect, New7Wonders adheres to the same principles as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), organisations that do not tolerate any government interference so as to ensure their independence.

So, with the Maldives still a finalist, the critical choice to be made by the key decision-makers in the Maldives is whether to support the campaign or not.

I think that it would be a good idea for all the leaders in the Maldives to be active participants in the campaign for the simple reason that it makes good business sense. After all, this is why so many countries, with their public and private sectors, are enthusiastically involved in this global event. And at a time of such economic difficulty for the Maldives, the return on investment by participating in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign could be enormously beneficial for the country.

Two independent studies support this assertion.

First, an analysis produced last year by Pearson (publisher of the Financial Times) valued the overall economic success in the first campaign to elect the man-made New 7 Wonders of the World as being more than US$5 billion for all the participants. Second, a report last month by the audit firm Grant Thornton in South Africa estimated the economic benefits alone at US$1.012 billion for each of the New7Wonders of Nature winners.

The unfounded complaints by the MMPRC regarding the campaign sponsorship options have to be seen in the light of these extraordinarily positive numbers.

Now, as a rule, New7Wonders does not comment on any reported sponsorship numbers, as it respects the confidentiality of such matters. Unlike the MMPRC, we honour contractual confidentiality. Nevertheless, New7Wonders can confirm that at no stage was the government of the Maldives invited to be a sponsor, nor was any government sponsorship money requested.

As well, leading companies in the Maldives have been, since 2009, invited to be sponsors of the campaign. For the record, New7Wonders has made many practical suggestions for how the sponsorships can be adapted in line with the specific requirements of the Maldives economy.

In a further attempt to delegitimise the New7Wonders campaign, UNESCO and the UN were brought into the debate. Well, as we make clear on our website, the New7Wonders of Nature campaign is not a UNESCO campaign. New7Wonders does not request nor seek the endorsement of UNESCO, nor vice-versa.

There is a very good reason for this: due to its specific remit of cataloguing and listing hundreds of world heritage locations, without being seen to favour some over others, according to its own statutes UNESCO does not have the authority to officially organise or endorse a popular initiative such as the New7Wonders of Nature campaign.

As regards the New7Wonders relationship with the UN, this is at headquarters level in New York. We have successfully cooperated with The UN Office of Partnerships in the past, and look forward to doing so again in the future, for example through such initiatives as making the New7Wonders Global Voting Platform available to promote the UN Millennium Goals.

By the way, when it comes to making comparisons between international organisations, we feel that New7Wonders offers a model that deserves more recognition, especially in times when people are worried about personal and state finances. The fact is that the New7Wonders campaigns are delivered to the world without any government subsidy. The extraordinary economic value that is created for the participating locations is done without the spending of any public money. What is more, when all the costs have been covered at the end of our two global voting campaigns, 50 percent of any surplus will be donated to the New7Wonders Foundation to help make the vision of Global Memory a reality.

It is not for me to say what is best for the Maldives; that is a decision for the people of the republic and their representatives. New7Wonders, however, continues to believe that the Maldives is a worthy participant in the New7Wonders of Nature, and that the potential economic, tourism and image benefits far outweigh the concerns that have been so blatantly misrepresented by the MMPRC.

New7Wonders offers Maldivians and fans of the Maldives around the world the benefits of being part of a global community. It would be a pity not to participate. As the poet said, we are all part of something that’s much bigger than ourselves.

Eamonn Fitzgerald is Head of Communication at New7Wonders.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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