Maldives faced with ethical tourism debate amidst resort boycott calls

With the Maldives having garnered international headlines of late over the controversial replacement of its first democratically elected leader, the ethically-focused tourism charity has said that guests visiting the country's often high-end desert island resorts could make a more positive impact by being aware of what is happening beyond the nation's often lavish tourist paradises.

 

“At Tourism Concern, we always encourage holidaymakers to find out about the country they’re visiting, including the political situation there, so they can make informed choices about where they go on holiday and what they can do when there to make sure their have a more positive impact,” the spokesperson claimed.

 

Advisory calls

 

The calls were made on the back of political unrest that has swept the Indian Ocean nation this month following the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed as the country's president  - a move he later alleged was made under duress. 

 

With questions still being asked over the nature of the transfer of power, as well as reports of crackdowns by security forces on opposition protesters, an organisation called Friends of Maldives has issued a travel advisory asking tourists to avoid booking certain resorts it believes are linked to the newly installed government of President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

 

Since he came to power on February 7, 2012, President Waheed has been trying to assure foreign media that he has a legal mandate and also pledged to put together a “national unity” government as questions remain over the legitimacy of his premiership.

 

In this political climate, Friends of Maldives, a UK-based organisation that pledges to promote human rights issues and other developments in the country has urged tourists to come and visit the Maldives and denied it wants a boycott of the destination.  The group has instead asked visitors to avoid certain properties linked with figures it claims have had direct involvement in the alleged coup until fresh elections are announced.

 

The present travel asvisory targets two resort owners in the form of current Vice President Waheed Deen, who owns the Bandos Island Resort and local business magnate and head of the country's Jumhooree Party (JP), Gasim Ibrahim, who owns several properties under the Villa Hotels brand.

 

Villa Hotels currently operates several properties including the Paradise Island Resort and Spa, Royal Island Resort and Spa and the Holiday Island.

 

The travel advisory issued by Friends of Maldives - which reflects a similar action it took against resorts several years ago to highlight concerns about human rights issues across the nation under the country’s former autocratic leader, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom - has been criticised strongly by one local tourist industry body.

 

According to local media, the Maldives Association for Tourism and Travel Operators (MATATO) has put forward calls for the new government to take “proper action” against a boycott campaign of the country's tourism industry.

 

The industry body reportedly released a statement condemning attempts to politicise the country's tourism industry, claiming that Friends of Maldives represented a group of people wishing to entirely destroy Maldivian tourism. 

 

“Tourism industry is one-third of Maldivian economy, and we cannot afford to politicise it. We condemn this act in the strongest of terms”, a statement from MATATO reportedly read. 

 

“Most of our employed population work at the tourism sector, and any of the resorts suffer, the whole nation’s economy would face severe consequence, and our people would be driven into starvation.”

 

Speaking to the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper last week, Friends of Maldives founder David Hardingham said that calling a boycott on all the country's resorts would prove “unnecessarily damaging” to a tourism industry that was vital to the country's overall financial wellbeing.  Rather than calling for a potentially damaging blanket boycott of the country, Hardingham claimed that the organisation had provided a travel advisory designed to inform travellers of the tourist figures with suspected involvement of instigating an alleged mutiny amongst police and military officers to remove Mohamed Nasheed from office.

 

"The new government is a coalition of [former President] Gayoom's people, with the respectable face of [President Waheed] Hassan. A boycott of all the country's resorts would be unnecessarily damaging, but we have been investigating those owners who are clearly involved," Hardingham stated.

 

Resort seclusion

 

Whilst the nation's “uninhabited” islands have been exclusively developed over the last few decades into resorts exclusively serving foreign visitors a heady holiday mix of diving, beach-side relaxation, fine dining, spa treatments and a good cocktail or two – the situation is very different on islands inhabited by local people. These "inhabited islands" are home to more than 300,000 Maldivians, most of whom strictly adhere to an Islamic constitution that outlaws the sale of alcohol, pork products, bikinis and any other form of religious worship.

 

It is both this physical and legislative isolation between the resorts and everyday Maldivian life that has helped encourage foreign governments like the UK to issue travel advisories stressing that it remains safe to visit the Maldives outside of the capital Male' and its other inhabited islands.

 

A spokesperson for Tourism Concern said that awareness-raising campaigns such as those backed by Friends of Maldives were serving to highlight the difficulties in balancing tourism developments while addressing ethical concerns.

 

“The physical and conceptual divide between the luxury island resorts allows tourists to see themselves and their holiday as being far removed from wider human rights issues and other ethical concerns– a perception that the hotels and tour operators will be keen to encourage,” the spokesperson claimed. “However, as the awareness-raising campaigns of the past tried to communicate - the divide is a false one and in fact, there may be direct links between those involved in tourism and the mismanagement and corrupt practices that helped keep so many in poverty despite the huge sums of money derived from the luxury resorts and hotels.”

 

While the Maldives is hardly the first nation to face allegations of oppressing certain members of its society or committing human right abuses, Tourism Concern, which has not yet at the time of going to press backed Friends of Maldives' current campaign, said it urged tourists to try and make more informed ethical choices when it came to picking properties along with  oher important factors like the quality of a pool or restaurant.

 

“I don’t think there is a single country in the world that hasn’t had its share of social and political problems, including state-perpetrated violence and human rights abuse committed against particular groups or other countries,” said a spokesperson for the charity. “I think most people realise this to some extent, but, when we go on holiday, most of us don’t want to think about these kinds of issues. However, at Tourism Concern, we always encourage holidaymakers to find out about the country they’re visiting.”

 

Taking the example of Burma, Tourism Concern said that boycotts of certain properties or even destinations has served to highlight how tourism can be used to support potentially oppressive governments.

 

“Many tour operators and tourists stopped visiting Burma following calls from the National League for Democracy and Aung San Su Kyi to boycott the country in order to stop the military junta from benefiting from tourism,” claimed a spokesperson for the charity.

 

“[We] supported the boycott and, while others disagreed, it has helped stimulate awareness and debate about how tourism – like any other major industry – can serve to support oppressive governments both financially and through promoting a false image of a country as a ‘paradise’ destination, when in fact the broad population are suffering social and economic oppression.”

 

Beyond politics, Tourism Concern said it was focusing on a wide number of ethical travel issues including environmental factors such as water supply, which it believes is a scarce commodity at a number of destinations.

 

One major player involved in the ethical holiday discussion is travel operator Kuoni, which told Dhonisaurus it has not been made aware of the boycott calls from Friends of Maldives.

 

A spokesperson for the company said it was presently following the advice of agencies like the UK Foreign Office.  Under this advice, the company said it was not offering excursions to the capital of Male' for the moment, but was still continuing to take customers to their resorts, which had been unaffected by recent unrest.  The country has seen a number of violent demonstrations and peaceful protests this month over concerns about the current political direction of the nation.

 

“As with all our destinations, we have ground agents to look after our customers in resort and an operations team here in the UK. Our customers’ safety is our primary concern thus we follow the [Foreign Office] advice and we are a member of the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) whom we work with for any situations (natural or otherwise) that may occur,” the spokesperson claimed

 

From an ethical standpoint, Kuoni said that it looked at each destination individually as to whether the potential benefits of tourism outweighed concerns against it.

 

“It is a balance of the ‘ethical’ case with the benefits that tourism can bring to that place and local people and ensuring we provide information for customers to make an informed choice,” the spokesperson claimed.

 

“For example Burma – we have not featured Burma for many years but have added it to our programme for 2012 and have included ‘ethical travel’ information to our brochure and website.”