Dusit aims for “distinct” sustainable appeal with Maldivian resort début

Thai hospitality group Dusit has this week opened it first resort property in the Maldives that has been designed to try and balance sustainable with luxury elements like a tree-top spa in order differentiate itself from competitors in the country.

The Dusit Thani Maldives resort, located on the island of Mudhdhoo in Baa Atoll, has over 100 villas that - like any self-respecting Maldivian resort - are situated across the island's beach and waters.

A spokesperson for the resort told Dhonisaurus that the property has been designed to employ a number of green initiatives in an attempt to pioneer the development of national sustainable energy solutions.

These initiatives include employing solar thermal heating within staff and work areas, along with using heat recovery pumps and light emitting diode (LED) lights at the property's front of house sections. The resort will also be joining a number of the country's tourist properties in boasting its own on-site water bottling factory to cut down on plastic waste and the additional environmental and cost impacts associated with haulage.

Along with the property's physical design, Dusit said it has also attempted to ensure that disposables vital to a guest's enjoyment of the island were sustainably managed; biodegradable matter is set aside to be used for fertilising and landscaping as compost, whilst an on-site herb and vegetable garden targets cutting the overall demand for importing certain produce.

A spokesperson for the company believed these environmental commitments were one of a number of vital focuses employed to make the property distinct from a large number of luxury resorts operating in the Maldives.

This focus is also reflected in the property's location within Baa Atoll, which has been designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, allowing the Dusit Thani resort to serve as a "strategic point" for exploring marine biodiversity in the bay of Hanifaru Huraa – famed for its whale shark and manta sightings.

“Dusit Thani Maldives is the group's first venture into the Indian Ocean and also its most most luxurious investment so far,” added the company spokesperson.

The resort claimed sustainability is one of a number of key features with which it is using to entice guests, along with the lavish sounding Devarana Spa, sat atop the coconut palm trees of the island and the country's largest infinity pool measuring 750 square metres

“Dusit Thani Maldives' centrepiece [pool] integrates technology and nature and flows around a stately banyan tree,” the company said in a statement. “Our environmentally-forward approach also means all pools are installed with a saline system and use no chlorine.

Beyond the Maldives' wider national ambitions to become carbon neutral by the end of the decade - a pledge outlined by former President Mohamed Nasheed before his removal from power this week in what he has since alleged was a 'coup' - a number of resorts are moving to play up their own green credentials in the country.