travel – Page 4 – Minivan News

Six surfing legends compete for trophy in inaugural Maldives comp

Australian surf legend Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo narrowly defeated seven-times female world champion Layne Beachley yesterday in the single fin division of the Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy.

Beachley knocked out two-time world champion Damien Hardman in the semi-final, while Occy defeated world longboard champion Josh Constable to go on to face Beachley.

The first day of the invitational event saw the six surf legends – Occy, Beachley, Constable, and Hardman, as well as four-time world champion Mark Richards and Nat Young, compete at the Sultans break near Four Season’s Kuda Huraa resort.

“This morning I surfed with Mark Richards and I kept on falling off in front of him and he said ‘I’m hexing you’, but it was the pressure of competing against my idol,” said Occy, following his win.

Speaking to Minivan News between heats, Beachley explained that it was unusual for female surfers to compete against men at such an elite level of the sport.

“The ability and depth of skill has really improved in women’s surfing and has helped bridge the gap in performance [at the professional level], but it’s not really fair to pit a lightweight boxer against a heavyweight,” she said. “One big difference is that our hips get in the way when we turn – it’s an anatomical disadvantage. It’s not a worry for recreational surfers but it matters at a professional level because women can never have the technical finesse of the top guys.”

Despite the camaraderie between the champions there was, Beachley noted, a very strong competitive undercurrent.

“When you’re surrounded by world champions there is a mutual respect because we know what it takes, but when we’re paddling out no one’s there to lose,” she said.

“It’s very competitive. No guy wants to lose to a girl. The boys are amped. Their pumped up, even if they’re pretending to play it down.”

Female professional surfers, Beachley observed, tended to take not just the sport but also their responsibility as role models for other female surfers very seriously, and most were “well-spoken ambassadors.”

Beachley herself was on a board at Manly beach in Sydney Australia by age four, competing in mens heats at 15 and turning professional just a year later. By the age of 20 she was ranked sixth in the world, and in 1998 went on to win the world championship for six consecutive years.

“I always took pride in training harder than anyone else. I would be doing boxing, swimming, dune running, weights and yoga. I had a very strict cross-training regime,” she told Minivan News.

laynebeachley — Beachley's husband, INXS sax/guitarist Kirk Pengilly, gives his wife a quick massage between waves

Asked about developing the female surfing scene in the Maldives, Beachley suggested that female surfers should “band together, and make sure the guys understand that girls have as much right to be in the water as them. Then work your way up the food chain. Don’t cry victim, it’s not the best way to get respect. Instead show tenacity and confidence and let the guys know it.”

Beginner surfers, she noted, faced not just the technical challenges of learning the sport but also the unspoken etiquette and rules that could only be passed on by other surfers.

“Beginner surfers really need to utilise a surf school,” Beachley said, “not only to because they teach the fundamentals but also the unspoken etiquette. One of the problems with surfing is that the rules are unspoken.”

In contrast to many famously territorial surf destinations, Beachley said the Maldives had a reputation for hospitality and the breaks for being “playful, fun, user friendly, more relaxing and peaceful than places like Indonesia and Tahiti.”

The country’s reef breaks, she said, were more predictable than beach breaks in that they followed a certain shape, and were easier to read.

“With beaches you have to quickly adapt to changes. The advantage to a beach break is that a sandy bottom is softer to land on,” she laughed.

Local surfer ‘Bongo’ was on hand during the Four Seasons competition to help out with conditions.

“Sultans is a right-hander, a very good wave for beginners and intermediate surfers. It has an easy takeoff and a slow first section, with time for 1-2 turns, and a nice barrel inside. On a big day it’s still a challenge. I like hollow right-handers, because I’m a natural footer,” he said.

The day saw offshore winds and 2-3 foot waves, “clean and glassy”, according to Bongo.

The competition, he predicted, would be “good for tourism” given the international publicity the big names would generate.

“Apart from that, we’re lucky to be out here seeing the legends of surfing ripping,” he said.

The Maldives has “2-3 guys like Ibu and Issay who might be able to bust a few aerial maneuvers and maybe challenge these guys, but Occy is tough competition,” he said.

“There’s also the matter of the handicap in the scoring system – older guys get more time in the heats, so I reckon the younger surfers stand no chance.”

He acknowledged that the Maldives had few female surfers dedicated to the sport, “which is really sad.”

“We’ve had a few girls try out, and some of them did very well. The problem is that it’s not easy for them to be out surfing every day, and you take a lot of bumps in a shallow reef break. All surf breaks in the Maldives are reef breaks, which makes it difficult for beginners.”

Despite the laid-back reputation of the sport, surfing remains largely a male-dominated sport with a reputation for being fiercely territorial and hostile for beginners. This was less of a problem in the Maldives given the seclusion of most breaks and the country’s dependence on tourism, he suggested.

“The locals are much more laid back than other places like Hawaii or South Africa, you don’t see scenes like the Hui or Black Shorts here. It’s mainly because all these breaks are secluded and the country is dependent on tourism – everyone is really friendly,” Bongo said.

Dhonveli’s Pasta Point and Huduranfushi’s breaks were exclusive for tourists, he said, “although if we want to surf them we just need to give the resorts a ring and ask. There’s no problem for local surfers.”

Modern surfing was famously introduced to the Maldives by Australian national Tony Hussain Hind, who was shipwrecked in the country but on his departure saw so many perfect surf breaks that he turned around and made the Maldives his home.

“He introduced modern surfing, but before that locals would body surf using planks of wood,” Bongo said. “Really, the full history of surfing in the Maldives is unknown.”

The Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy continues over the next few days with the double fin and triple fin events.

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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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Out on a wing: Mega bets on Chinese market

The shifting demographics of the Maldives tourism industry presents new challenges – and a great many opportunities – for the country to grow as a destination, says CEO of new Maldivian flag carrier Mega Maldives, George Weinmann, during a ceremony in Male’ this week to mark the airline’s launch of direct flights to Shanghai and Beijing.

Since its maiden flight between Gan and Hong Kong early this year, Mega has focused on the country’s booming Chinese market. Chinese visitors last year showed the highest number of arrivals over more established markets, and were widely credited with insulating the Maldives from the effects of the economic recession afflicting the UK and Europe.

Weinmann emphasises that “while the Chinese market is now the number one market for the Maldives, is still not a mature market.”

“The agents in China don’t know the Maldives as well as the European agents who have been coming here for 30 years,” he explains. “The new agents are often asking us for help finding hotel rooms, and negotiate with the hotels – it’s not really our job, we’re an airline and there’s plenty of travel agencies on both sides – but oftentimes they aren’t connected. There have been incidents in the past where certain agents get very excited and think they can just fly their guests here, only to find there are no hotel rooms for their guests.”

Without intending to become a travel agency, the airline had found itself becoming an intermediary between the Chinese tour operators and resorts, he says, many of which are still getting to grips with the unique demands of the new market.

“We talk to resorts that are suffering with occupancy, perhaps 30-40 percent,” says Mega’s Marketing Director Ali Faiz, “and see how we can help each other. We also meet with resorts that are popular with the Chinese market and offer our jet to help them sell the Maldives.”

Whereas European guests tend to stay up to two weeks at resorts, the current trip pattern for Chinese visitors is very short – “four nights, five days,” says Weinmann.

“They are much more activity focused – a little less sun and sea, a little more doing things on a boat,” he says. “Like every other market they are very food conscious – but the type of food they are looking for is different, which for instance affects how we cater for inflight meals – although everyone likes ice-cream,” he adds.

Moreover, “as someone who has lived in China for seven years – they are huge spenders. The Chinese love to buy things. One complaint they may have with the Maldives is that there is not enough stuff to buy – they come here often with large wads of money and then go home with it. That’s an opportunity for local businessmen.”

The market is also rather risk adverse, which the fledgling airline found to its detriment in May when Hong Kong authorities issued a travel warning for the Maldives, triggered by excitable global media coverage of opposition-led protests in Male’.

“That was a near tragedy for us. We almost didn’t survive that period,” Weinmann acknowledges. “It came at the same time as changes on our side with pricing, and we almost lost the entire month of May because people who had been intending to go to the Maldives but hadn’t yet bought their tickets decided not to go.

“There was very low additional sales in May. Those people who had already bought their tickets – who had spent hundreds of dollars on rooms – couldn’t get that money back so they came anyway, and of course there were no problems. But when a warning like that goes out, anybody who has the discretion to choose not to buy, to choose somewhere else or postpone their trip, will do so. It doesn’t matter if it’s a yellow, red or black warning – it’s a huge hit. Just ask people in Thailand about what they experienced during their local turmoil. It is a roller-coaster ride in terms of bookings.”

Mega worked with resorts and the government to try and reassure visitors that the protests were limited to a few streets of the capital city – which few visitors to the country even set foot on.

“Recovery takes time,” Weinmann says. “When the incidents are over, then you have to go out and educate the market and tell all the travel agents what is going on. For a market like China that is growing as fast as it is, they do have other choices, and they are not as comfortable with the Maldives as the European market, which sees such incidents as a small bump in road.”

“We did obviously recover,” he adds, “because we launched Beijing-Shanghai a couple of months later, and that’s been very successful.”

Mega subsequently decided to introduce free cancellation insurance for every ticket, covering the first night of accommodation in the event of a delayed flight, which Weinmann explains was a way of offsetting the non-negotiable cancellation policies of many resorts in the Maldives.

“It’s one of the biggest issues in the Asian market right now,” he said. “We are competing against other Asian markets such as Bali and Thailand, and other island destinations such as Guam that are developing very fast, and in many of these countries hotels don’t have the kind of cancellation policies that exist in the Maldives. It makes it more risky for tour operators to sell the Maldives – we’re trying to eliminate that risk.”

Weinmann believes the Maldives also has room to grow existing markets, and said Mega hoped to launch flights to so-called ‘tier 2’ cities and stimulate growth in places such as Eastern Europe.

Korea also has more potential, he explained, noting that Mega would introduce a flight to Seoul in September.

“There are current five wide-body aircraft flying between Korea and Hawaii every day. That’s a nine hour flight, and the Maldives is probably a little cheaper.”

India, on the Maldives’ doorstep, was exactly two years behind China he predicts.

“But it’s a challenge that regulations prevent a Maldivian carrier flying more than 200 seats to Mumbai or Delhi. We have 250 seats, and we’d like to change that.”

Cargo imports are another growth opportunity, Weinmann says, announcing 15 discounted tickets to kickstart a trade delegation of Maldivian traders and businessmen to find opportunities in China.

“Right now all the cargo coming into the Maldives goes through Sri Lanka, Singapore or Dubai,” he explains. “Not much is produced in these locations, it’s all coming from somewhere else – a lot of it from China. We want to increase direct imports from China which should mean less cost and cheaper prices, as there will be less middlemen involved.”

Meanwhile, the airline has begun recruiting more Maldivian cabin crew, in addition to the two classes already through, and is currently training six Maldivian pilots and soon, engineering cadets. Weinmann predicts the company will employ over 100 Maldivian staff by the end of the year.

“We not doing this just because we want to, but because it’s the right thing for the airline. We think Maldives aviation can grow a lot further,” he says.

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Tour giant funding project to raise resistance of coral reefs in the Maldives

Travel giant Kuoni, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and local environmental consultancy Seamarc have launched a comprehensive project to protect coral reefs and address the impact of climate change in the Maldives.

Speaking at the launch of the project this week at the Nalahiya hotel in Male’, Kuoni’s Head of Corporate Responsibility Matthias Leisinger observed that “tourism is like fire. You can cook with it, but it can also burn your house down.”

Kuoni has conducted a similar project in Egypt, targeting the Red Sea. Such projects were, Leisinger said, investment by the company in the long-term sustainability of destinations and a tool well within the company’s business model.

The 100 year-old leisure travel operator employs 10,000 people across 40 countries, and had as a result of its breadth broadened its scope from travel and tour provision to “destination management”.

“Investment in corporate social responsibility is a long-term business tool,” Leisinger said. Tackling practices such as sex tourism, for instance, was also a way of protecting the company’s brand, he explained.

Ensuring that hotels had no waste on beach, that islands had infrastructure such as sewerage plants and that staff were treated fairly increased the quality of the company’s end product, which affected its bottom line, he explained.

One aspect of the project involves establishing waste management facilities on 10 inhabited islands near Kuoni resorts. According to the project synopsis, “islanders will be taught to segregate waste at household level and bins will be provided to store the waste separately until removal from the island. A once-off large clean up may need to be organised before implementation of the system as most islands have accumulated waste over time.”

As well as improving the environment of the local island and allowing the resort to tick one of its ‘corporate social responsibility’ boxes, the facilities will “reduce the waste that washes up on the shores of the resorts themselves.”

A key focus of the project is protection and management of the resorts’ housereefs, which are currently protected by law from all fishing activities apart from bait fishing, “and as such, these areas act as marine protected areas (MPA) by default.”

However few resorts employed marine biologists to manage the housereef and limit destructive activity, and many times the boundries were ambigious “which results in unacceptable use of the reefs by outsiders leading to conflicts between the resort and local people.”

Under the project, four resorts will trial an ‘MPA management plan’ involving ecologicial surveys and the use of a warden to “drive away intruders”.

The project will also include an extensive series of training sessions and workshops for resort staff and local communities, and including on the reporting and monitoring of coral bleaching.

Senior Advisor at IUCN Dr Ameer Abdulla explained that bleaching represented the expulsion of symbiotic plants from coral due to stress factors such as pollution, sudden changes in temperature and ocean acidification, making the coral vulnerable to algae.

“Eventually the reef disintegrates, with the loss of shoreline protection and tourism benefits,” he explained.

“A bleaching event in 1998 saw close to 100 percent mortality in some areas [of the Maldives],” he said. “It was 87 percent in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but because the area has been well managed the rate of recovery was very high.”

Tackling climate change was a broader problem requiring international effort, but local measures to reduce impacts and increase the resistance threshold of the reefs could “give the coral a fighting chance”, he explained.

Dr Abdulla noted concerns raised by dive staff at one resort that local fishermen had begun fishing for grouper on the resort’s house reef, but were unsure of their mandate and did not want to spark local conflicts.

A representative from the Ministry of Tourism, present at the launch, observed that such incidents were likely to increase “as stocks diminish elsewhere.”

The representative also noted new challenges arising with the changing market profile of tourism in the country – whereas visitors from European countries such as France and Germany responded well to requests to respect the natural environment, “the market is changing, and Chinese guests are walking on the reefs, catching and eating crabs… During a recent visit to Shanghai we tried to get the message across, but it’s a very different culture.”

A representative from the Marine Research Centre (MRC) retaliated that it was in the interests of the Tourism Ministry to legally mandate resorts “to take responsibility for the natural environment for the duration of the lease.”

Much of the country’s lucrative resort industry “remains very closed,” he observed.

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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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Parties launch protests as foreign media descends on Male’

Police this morning dispersed a rally of several hundred anti-government demonstrators who gathered at Republican Square near the headquarters of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), amid a somewhat carnival atmosphere that settled over other parts of the city on Friday.

Dismissed Deputy Leader of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Umar Naseer, and MPs Ali Arif and Ahmed Mahlouf were detained for an hour after allegedly shoving police.

After a run of demonstrations across Male’ this week in protest against the government’s decision to implement a managed float of the rufiya, effectively devaluing the currency, police on Wednesday announced that any protests not held in the open artificial beach or tsunami monument areas would be immediately dispersed.

The DRP, which insists the protests are ‘youth-led’ despite the apparent leadership of its MPs, has tried to replicate the ‘Arab Spring’ protests across the Middle East, painting President Nasheed as a despot to the international media and dubbing a busy Male’ intersection ‘Youth Square’.

The DRP announced that the protest would continue this evening at the artificial beach from 8:45pm.

Meanwhile, the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) held a counter-protest this afternoon, with several thousand people gathering near the tsunami monument carrying banners and waving yellow flags.

Speaking at the rally, President Mohamed Nasheed stated that the government’s currency decision was backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and challenged the opposition to defeat him in an election rather than attempting to topple the government illegitimately.

Nasheed claimed that the budget deficit had improved since the government took power, and that it had also introduced state pensions, health insurance and benefits for single parents and the disabled.

A concert stage and a number of upturned and smashed vehicles in the area, part of a police ‘Speed Kills’ campaign, provided a surreal backdrop to the pro-government demonstration.

mdpprotest — An upturned car near the MDP rally, part of a police road accident campaign.

A number of foreign media outlets, including Al-Jazeera, have arrived in Male’ to cover the demonstrations after violent protests last week were widely publicised internationally.

Passing the DRP headquarters this afternoon and assumed to be foreign media, Minivan News was approached by an opposition supporter who compared the pro-government demonstrators to “pro-Mubarak supporters” who “beat us at night.”

Former Egyptian President of 30 years Hosni Mubarak was deposed by a democratic uprising in Egypt, leading to a tide of similar pro-democracy rallies across the Middle East.

Maldivian tourism representatives attending the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, the region’s largest such expo, claimed this week to be receiving cancellations because of safety fears amid the ongoing demonstrations.

“Travel operators in Taiwan have said they are postponing and cancelling group bookings because of negative perceptions [of safety] in the Maldives,” a tourism source attending the expo told Minivan News.

“We just had another two confirmed bookings cancelled today because of reports of riots and instability. We worked hard to get these bookings and the potential domino effect is really worrying – people panic.”

Economic problems

An ongoing dollar shortage, reluctance of banks to exchange local currency, and a flourishing blackmarket that reached Rf 14.2-14.8 to the dollar, culminated in mid-April with the government finally acknowledging that the rufiya was overvalued – after a short-lived attempt to crack down on ‘illegal’ exchanges.

High demand immediately led to most banks and companies dealing in dollar commodities – such as airline ticketing agents – to immediately raise their rate of exchange to the maximum permitted rate Rf15.42.

With the Maldives almost totally reliant on outside imports, including fuel and basic staples such as rice, the government’s decision has effectively led to a 20 percent increase in the cost of living for most ordinary Maldivians.

In an article for Minivan News, Director of Structured Finance at the Royal Bank of Scotland Ali Imraan observed that ‘growth’ in the domestic economy had been driven by the public sector and “paid for by printing Maldivian rufiya and clever manoeuvres with T-Bills, which the government has used since 2009 to be able conveniently sidestep the charge of printing money. In simple terms: successive governments printed/created money to drive domestic economic growth.”

With the introduction this year of a 3.5 percent tourism goods and services tax, a business profit tax and a revision of the rents paid for resort islands, the government now has a number of economic levers it can pull to increase revenue in the future.

However, it has struggled to explain that to people now paying up to 20 percent extra for basic commodities – an affront to the MDP’s pledge to reduce the cost of living – and was caught unawares by this week’s populist protests.

Both factions of the opposition have seized the political opportunity to take the focus off the party’s internal troubles, but have offered few alternatives beyond demanding the government “reduce commodity prices”.

Letter on draconian immigration

Dear Editor,

I am a Maldivian, who is studying in UK. I have been living in UK for the past five years and have always been keen in travelling and exploring other places and cultures of the world.

For much of the westerns and other nations, Maldives is heaven on earth. It is a paradise they all highly value and dream of visiting for once at least in their life time. For they are all true regarding this. And I have no doubt their dream holidays are nothing beyond perfect and excellent during their visit to Maldives.

But they don’t enjoy Maldives only because of its sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. Nor it is only due to the exotic resorts or the delicious food. It is all about the hospitality and the welcome they recieve as well. Maldivians are well known to host their visitors with utmost care and excellent treatment. From the time the forigners land in Maldives and until they leave, they are always treated with a smile. They never face any difficulties or problems at the airport, transit to their hotel, stay in the resort and journey back to the airport. We serve them well with proficiency and excellence. This is how Maldivians are.

But I would like to tell you all some of the experiences I have faced while travelling to other countries. I have to say unfortunately I didn’t face the very same hospitality I expected despite the fact I was also paying for my trip just like the way other foreign visitors do when they travel to Maldives. My passport clearly says on its first page that the Foreign Minister requests the bearer of it to pass Maldivian national to pass freely without any problems for me. I guess this must be their in every country’s passport and to be honest no one cares about what is written on that page.

I went on a trip to Europe trip this winter. I was travelling on a Schengen Visa. I visited Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy and France. I was travelling with my study friends who were all British citizens and there was one Malaysian citizen too with us.

At each airport of the above mentiones countries, the immigration stopped me and asked lots of questions which made me feel very unwelcome and uncomfortable. Despite having the Schengen visa and all other travelling documents like tickets and travel cheques, I found myself subjected to unnecessary scrutiny by these immigrations. The French and the German immigration were the worst. My British colleagues passed the immigration in less than a second, without facing a single question from no one. I am not surprised for them as they are EU nationals, but what surprised me was my Malaysian friend. He was treated just like the British nationals and he did not face any questions from them. He even didn’t need prior visa to enter these countries. I was very surprised.

Here I am visiting some countires in Europe who send thousands of tourists to my country every day and I have been treated like some alien trying to intrude in to their property or something. It was very upsetting and I hope no other Maldivian faces this. May be the Maldivian diplomatic passport holders might not face what I have been through, but this doesn’t mean there aren’t simple ordinary maldivians like me who do travel through europe. I believe its time the Maldivian goverment (I mean all of you) try and work more harder with the Schengen blog to include Maldives in their Visa Waiver List. This would make Maldivians travel free without hastle in the EU, just like for Malaysians.

The previous governments foreign minister Mr Fathuhullah Jameel has travelled all around the world on his diplomatic passport but never bothered to do this during his long FM job. But can you all (the new government) do this for us, for the sake of simple ordianry Maldivian Passport holders? I don’t think Maldivians are a risk for the EU as we have visa free entry to UK and Ireland as well. The government could bridge this as a promoting factor for us to get into the Schengen blog. Can you all please do your best to get us travel free and avoid the difficulties at immigration at EU countries? I hope you all will work hard for this and this is my request as a Maldivian from you all. I believe we also deserve to have freedom of movement and be treated with respect just the way we treat the EU nationals when they come to our country, don’t we?

The next I experienced was during last year summer. I was going back home, Male’ from London. My flight was stopping at Dubai and it was a long transit of more than 24 hours.

I didn’t want to stay this long period inside the airport building and so thought of going out to see the city of dubai during this long transit period. To my surprise I needed a visa to go out. I don’t understand why. A person from Lithuania doesn’t need a visa to enter Dubai but here I am, a Maldivian, whose country has more close ties with Dubai needs a visa to see the city for just 24 hours. Any ways I asked for a visa which they issued me for US$75.

Now that’s a lot for a visa of 24 hours, isn’t it? And not only this, the authorities who issued the visa were utterly rude and unprofessional. They were very nice and pleasant with the white Europeans but I noticed they were very different with tone and customer relations with the dark skinned asians. And I was one of them.

I could not believe all this and I was very dissapointed. I did visit Doha also a year ago and faced a similar situation. I had to pay a visa fee to enter Doha too just for two days. I don’t think this is the way we should be treated. Maybe it is an arab thing, I don’t know, but I didn’t deserve it. I don’t think Arabs are treated like that when they visit Maldives. First of all we give them more respect I think because they are Muslims. Secondly they all get to enter Maldives free of visa without having a penny to pay for it. So why did I have to face the opposite when I visited their coutries? They are more rich in natural resources than Maldives and yet I have to pay for visa to see their country but they don’t have to pay nothing to see my country.

This is not fair. Plus I have to face discrimination and rude behavious from them when we treat them with respect and dignity. I believe these things have to addressed at formal level by all of you with these Arab and other countries. And I don’t think its fair to give them free visas when they charge so much from us to visit their country. May be its time and best that Maldives government also charge a visa fee from them too. I am sure their nationals are capable of paying the same visa fee I paid to see their cities for few hours or days. Plus the visa fee could generate some income to our economy too just like the way ot helps theirs. So I think it is better to bring some changes to the famous ’30 day free visa on arrival to Maldives’, maybe make some countries not included in this famous logo.

Maldivians are not generally big time travellers. But there are lots of us who do travel, aspire travelling and wants to travel. If all of you and the government make travel easy for us by asking other countries to make us visa free and provide hastle free immigrations, it can put more maldivians into travelling. Travelling bridges societies and cultures. It opens hearts and unites people. It makes us realise about others in this world and helps us more to realise how much more is there to life. So please can you all work on this. Make travelling easy for us. Ask other governments to make visa free for Maldivian citizens. At the moment there are just a handful of countries where we can go without a visa. I was very surprised to know that I need a visa to enter even Morocco as a tourist, a country whose national made us all muslims. So I guess the foreign ministry needs to do a lot of work.

I appreciate the new look of the website of our foreign ministry. But its sad to know it doesn’t contain a list of the countries where Maldivian citizens can travel to, as a tourist, without a visa. I think this list is very important and should be there on the ministries website (always up tp date). Also surprisingly there is no proper contact email address (for Maldivians) of the ministry given on the website.

I hope this letter is not offensive to any one of you. The purpose of this letter is to let you all know how an ordinary maldivian feels when he is subjected to such taunt by other countries immigrations. And its not my fault that I need a visa to enter those coutries. I hope you all will try to work with other foreign governments to make us visa and hastle free when we travel to other coutnries. For we are all humans and we all deserve freedom of movement, respect and dignity.

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter, please submit it to [email protected]

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Plane as day: Mega takes off on back of Chinese tourism boom

The Maldives’ newest international airline, Mega Global Maldives, has just completed its maiden international flight between Hong Kong and Gan, delivering over 230 passengers to resorts in the southern atolls.

The charter flight was the first of what Mega intends to become a weekly service, delivering thousands of tourists a month under an arrangement between the airline, participating resorts, and Chinese tour operators.

Minivan News spoke to Mega’s CEO George Weinmann, a former rocket and satellite engineer with aerospace giant Boeing, as he stood on the beach of Herathera resort surrounded by “235 very happy guests about to go sailing – they are already talking about when they’re coming back.”

Weinmann has lived in China for seven years and believes that the potential of the Chinese market in the Maldives is being underestimated by an industry focused on its traditional, European-centric market.

“My first experience of the Maldives was on honeymoon with my wife, who is Chinese,” he said. “At the time I was looking for an investment opportunity and saw a big market that was developing fast – it has since exceeded our expectations.

“The Chinese market is deep and very rich. We believe there are further improvements to how the market is targeted and served.”

In 2010 the number of arrivals from China eclipsed arrivals from all other destinations, for the first time in the Maldives’ history. The influx of Chinese guests at resorts has been credited with partially cushioning the industry from the economic crisis in Europe, particularly during the warmer off-season when many sun-seeking Europeans have the option of travelling to closer countries such as Greece and Spain.

Weinmann believes that many resorts haven’t given the Chinese market the attention it requires to develop, in the mistaken belief that the boom in Chinese visitors is a temporary anomaly – a belief perhaps stemming from the trend among many Chinese guests to stay 2-3 days, while their European counterparts log an average of 10-14 days per visit.

“I don’t agree with that idea at all,” says Weinmann. “It’s a little like going back to the 1950s and saying that while the US is making a resurgence, Europe is still the place to be.”

The Chinese, he said, had become one of the biggest-spending tourism demographics in destinations such as France, with a per-person spend “substantially higher that most other [nationalities] visiting the EU. That was not a fluke – it was developed over five years.”

He noted that a colleague in China “has booked 60,000 airline seats to the EU on the basis of that demand from tour operators, and is booking more because of the demand.”

In the Maldives, Weinmann predicts eventual demand for an additional 20 resorts catering to the Chinese market, open all year round. Unlike the European sector, he explains, the Chinese market “doesn’t drop in volume. The weakest months for China are March and April, but that’s the start of the honeymoon season in Korea.”

Mega was unlikely to see competition from the much larger Chinese and Hong Kong carriers, Weinmann suggests, because they still regarded the Maldives as a niche market.

“There currently no flights from Asia that arrive in the Maldives in day time, which is not convenient for either the resorts or the seaplane operators,” he said. “We are seeing travel agents who are not satisfied with the schedules.”

Mega’s initial focus on charter flights in conjunction with tour operators and resorts not only ensures an early steady steam of income for the fledgling airline, but allows development of the product for Chinese visitors. Weinmann explains: “The benefit for us is that as a Maldivian airline we can start the whole resort experience with clients the moment they step on the plane. Tour operators like that.”

The collaboration with resorts and the early focus on the south of the Maldives, had meant a great deal of early support for the airline from resorts such as Shangri La and Herathera, Weinmann says.

“The southern resorts are very keen to have us, and have put together a very attractive package [for us]. We flew some Chinese guest relations officers with us to Herathera, several of our senior management speak Chinese, and the resorts are hiring some people from Thailand who have experience with the language.”

Eventually the airline hopes to operate a scheduled service, and potentially a domestic connection between Male’ and Gan to connect the Gan-Hong Kong route to more of the Maldives “as the market develops.”

The potential for opening other domestic routes was limited by the 264 seats on the company’s 767, but Weinmann says he sees potential to develop routes between the Maldives, Korea, Thailand and India, the latter for business travel as well as tourism – “the Indian [tourism] market is about two years behind China”, he suggests.

Weinmann says Mega has learned from the experiences of Air Maldives, the national flag carrier that declared bankruptcy in 2000 after ambitious over-expansion into international routes.

“I’m very aware of Air Maldives, and although didn’t experience it myself I have from the point of view of some of our staff who did,” he says. “A new airline has to be careful of its own success – if you get the market right it can be tempting to expand quickly. But each plane is a huge one-time cost, and several planes in a row can quickly deplete your financial resources. Then if you realise you haven’t got the market quite right, your expenses are very high and you have to hope you have very deep pockets. We have been very careful about how quickly we have developed.”

Setting up a new airline is not without obstacles, but Weinmann says Mega has been able to overcome those placed in its way so far. As a local carrier it was, he says, gratifying to see bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority show “enthusiasm for us to succeed.”

Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa said the resort industry was “on the right track” in adapting to rising demand from China, and noted that the Ministry had issued a circular to resorts requesting they provided safely regulations to Chinese guests in Mandarin – tourist fatalities last year were disproportionately Chinese nationals, mostly in snorkeling-related accidents.

There remained, Zulfa said, not enough mid-market beds, which was why the government was pushing for small-to-medium enterprise to develop 3-4 star hotels to compliment the luxury resorts that already existed in the country – a concept Weinmann agrees with: “the Maldives’ geography makes it unique, because the one-resort one-island concept means it can naturally segment the market based on demand.”

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Sun Travels to compensate couple while police investigate ‘wedding ceremony’ video

The Maldives Police Service have confirmed they are investigating staff at Vilu Reef Resort and Spa at the request of both the Ministry of Tourism and the resort’s operator Sun Travel and Tours, after a video of a controversial ‘renewal of vows’ ceremony was leaked to YouTube.

In the video, a Vilu Reef staff member, acting as the ‘celebrant’, unleashes a tirade of insults against the couple in Dhivehi in the solemn tone of a religious preacher, sparking both local and international outrage.

The couple, identified by the AFP as Swiss, appear oblivious to the humiliation as 10-15 resort staff look on and make disparaging comments about the couple’s appearance, and urge the celebrant to “make them suck mouth” – a Maldivian phrase to denigrate the act of kissing.

Non-Muslims are unable to be married in the Islamic country, however many resorts offer ‘traditional Maldivian’ renewal of vows ceremonies and the country is a popular destination for honeymooners.

Sun Travels and Tours issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying the corporate management of the resort was “deeply saddened by this humiliating event and expresses its serious concerns over the incident, including the content shown in the video and the unforgivable conduct displayed by the staff involved in the incident.”

“The management is in the process of contacting the two tourists who were victimised in this incident to extend sincerest apologies for this unacceptable incident. The management would offer compensation for the abuse they have suffered,” the company said.

“We sincerely apologise for the damage and serious repercussions this incident could cause to the tourism industry of the Maldives, the image of the country, the Maldivian people and their government.”

Speaking to Minivan News today, CEO of Sun Travels Ahmed Shakir confirmed that police had taken up the investigation “and the people directly responsible have been removed from the property.”

“Two employees have been removed to Male’, others have been suspended from duty and forbidden from leaving the staff area of the resort,” Shakir said. “[Staff] on the resort are being individually questioned as to how informed they were [about the incident].”

Vilu Reef Manager Mohamed Rasheed told Minivan News on October 26 that the that the staff member who uploaded the video, Ali Shareef, did so as “a joke”, without “realising the seriousness of the potential consequences”, and complied with management’s request to remove the video from YouTube.

Rasheed also said that he had become aware of the nature of the ceremony conducted by Food and Beverage Assistant Hussain Didi, and had banned Didi from performing any more ceremonies.

Shakir said today that the company was waiting on the advice of its lawyers as to whether it had grounds to take action against Shareef, and had established a proceedure for conducting the weddings and “eliminate the reading of anything in Dhivehi during the ceremony.”

Minivan News understands the company is attempting to contact the couple and explain the situation, and offer undisclosed compensation.

Shakir would not divulge the identity or nationality of the couple, “as we believe that at this stage it would do more harm than good.”

He would not comment on whether the humiliating ceremony was an isolated case or whether the behaviour had occurred before, but said the resort was “investigating”.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the resort was cooperating fully with the police investigation.

“We are discussing with the Prosectutor General’s office as to whether there is any way those involved can be charged,’ Shiyam said.

Not uncommon

Disparaging of guests in Dhivehi by resort staff was not uncommon, claimed Vice President of the Tourism Employment Association of the Maldives, Mahrouf Zakir.

“Sadly this is very common, and not only in Vilu Reef but even in very upmarket luxury resorts,” said Zakir. “I’ve seen it happening, and not just for wedding ceremonies but birthday songs as well. It’s a stupid thing to do, I think it’s crazy.”

“I don’t think this is new – if you look at the Vilu Reef video there are 15 people standing around for the ceremony, and a lot more people in the background. The management must have been aware of it.”

Many upmarket resorts actually prohibited Maldivian staff from speaking Dhivehi in front of guests, he noted.

“I know it’s difficult to believe, but the workers don’t do this out of disrespect for the guest. They don’t think that far. I know it probably doesn’t make sense, but they just do it for fun as they know guests don’t understand the language.

“We have to raise awareness among resort workers that this is unacceptable, as well as talk to the Ministry [of Tourism]. Many resort staff come from local islands, and simply do whatever they want for a laugh.”

Deputy Minister of Tourism Ismail Yasir said the Ministry was “very concerned” about the impact the incident would have on the Maldives’ reputation, and was also investigating to determine whether the practice was common.

Despite the religious insults in the video, Yasir said he did not believe the video was evidence of rising extremism.

“I don’t think this is extremism,” he said, “just irresponsibility on behalf of the management of the resort. It has had a huge impact on our reputation, and I would like to assure people that the government is doing everything in its power to make sure this does not happen again.”

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