Maldives Tourism Industry Analysis

The assignment involves an in-depth analysis of the Maldives tourism industry, with a focus on various aspects such as economic impact, sustainable development, and environmental concerns. It requires students to review and analyze relevant literature, including academic papers, articles, and online resources, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the industry's current state and future prospects.

TOURISM CONCEPT

TOURISM CONCEPT
Tourism is considered to be one of the most important aspects of economy. It has the
capacity to generate billions of revenues and provide employment to millions of people
worldwide. Tourism is referred as an act of travel for mainly relaxation and other purposes.
World Tourism Organization has defined tourists as the people who stay and travel to places
outside their usual environment for leisure, business, recreation or any other purposes. It gives an
opportunity to people to explore new culture, meet new people belonging to different state or
country and perform fun as well as adventurous activities at different destinations. The essay
makes a comprehensive discussion of Maldives, as the most preferred destination by the tourists
these days. The essay will also discuss regarding different perspectives of positioning tourism in
modern societies and the reason of being the first preference of tourist destination by millennium
destination. To make the base of knowledge concrete, impact of tourism on hospitality industry
will also be discussed. Moreover, different factors affecting the core life of people living in
Maldives will also be ascertained for better understanding purposes. In the end, the essay will
discus regarding life cycle stage of tourism with respect to Maldives.
According to Bowen, Zubair and Altinay (2016), tourism industry of the country supports
and aids foreign exchange reserves. Hence, a strong benefiting impact has been assessed on
generating foreign currency as well. A large chunk of people visits, stay and shop in a country
which ultimately contribute in the foreign currency generation. It is also considered to be a
continual source of generating income. Varied amount of tax is charged by the government in
different forms which is called as government revenue. This industry has been able to generate
jobs in hotel, hospitality, service sector, transportation and entertainment sector. It helps in
encouraging infrastructure development in city in the form of roads, dams, connectivity,
commutation facilities and airport improvements so that the best possible facilities can be
provided to tourists when they visit to a country, state or city. Apart from financial and economic
development, a major impact of tourism has been noticed on societal progress as well where an
individual visiting from other country can be made aware regarding cultures and traditions
followed by it. Adequate amount of exposure can be given to local skills, art and language as
well.
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One such destination is Maldives island. The island is said to be located at South West of
Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Tourism is considered to be one of the largest economic industry
in Maldives. It has been involved in earning foreign exchange revenues and generate high
employment rate in tertiary sector of the country. The archipelago of Maldives is considered to
be a prime source of attraction for tourists visiting country from worldwide. Maldives is
considered to be a country which is being made up of around 1200 island. Around 200 of them
are inhabited and remaining have been used to build tourist resorts. Some are used by external
companies and the left ones are used for fisheries and other basic purposes. The tourism
company of Maldives is known as MTD (Maldives Tourism Development Corporation), which
is responsible for taking all tourism based decisions for the country. Maldives is one of those
nations who have joined the agenda 21 Millennium development goals and Johannesburg for its
effective implementation with the aim to promote tourism in the country. Another objective of
2020 launch is to promote sustainability in the environment so that it can be preserved for
maximum number of years.
Positivism in tourism has been spread very widely, that it is associated with the
psychology as well economy of the tourism. As per Page (2014), behaviourist approaches are
referred with the concept of classical positivism which further helps in determining various
modelling approaches that can actually help the tourism adopt in Maldives, in a way that it seems
attractive enough for the tourists It has been now modified in a way that it ensures to exclude the
earlier concept of the positivist theory just to make the tourism efficient and attractive enough in
Maldives. For example, Thomas cook has adopted this approach to make their tourism more
effective and interactive. It has developed this approach in order to satisfy the customers to a
huge extent. This can be achieved by involving and focusing all the complexities, tourists face
in tourist destinations and then on working on the same so that the tourists who come in
Maldives do not have to face any complexity or any such complex situation. In contrast to this,
Kundur (2012) says Political economy perspectives has a different concept that also considers
the limitations of the positivism. It means, it covers all those aspects as well that are not possible
within the positivism. Also, the political economy perspectives involve all the complexities
regarding the capitalist and power reproduction as well, which further helps in shaping the
tourism in Maldives along with the factors that have a high influence over the tourism.
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In tourism, the political economy approach has mainly its focus on two strands and these
are the impact of regulation approach and the specified contradictions. The theory of regulation
refers to the relationship between economic and the political features that can increase the focus
on fulfilling all the requirements in Maldives such as completing all the legislative requirements
so that the tourism there can be stay maintained and also, manage the safety and security of the
tourists in order to provide them a comfortable stay. However, it can be evaluated that these
modifications in the political and economy perspectives can actually help in shaping the tourism
better in Maldives so that they can be able to attract as many tourists and also satisfy them by
providing every possible facility. It will help in maintaining and increase the rate of tourism in
Maldives and also gaining a huge number of tourists as well as the productivity. According to
Telfer and Sharpley (2015), postmodernism has also been considered as one of those old theories
which can be implemented in order to position the tourism within a huge amount of tourists. It
also implies the concept of decision making and a specified categorization in which it is to be
ensured that all the modified processes which is to be included such as to maximize the tourist
rate in Maldives, the authorities can sit together before and on the basis of the requirement of
people, can decide what changes are to be implemented and what new processes are to be
involved in a way such that there can be the availability of resources in Maldives that can fulfill
the basic aspects of tourists who come to spend holidays in Maldives. Whether it may be related
to the food, safety, maintenance etc., these should be well managed in order to satisfy the
purpose of tourists in Maldives. It is because when a tourist comes to a destination, these factors
are only ones that satisfies or disappoints them. So, these should be managed efficiently in order
to make the tourism in Maldives better. Also, the Cox and Kings have been successful enough in
maintaining the safety of the tourists and along with that, also has managed the focus on
providing healthy food and other basic requirements of the customers, so that customers can
have a happy visit. Also, to this, the customers have a better response as well.
Morrison, (2013) says, there have been found some gaps in aspect of the cultural
geo graphics of the tourism in Maldives, so the postmodernism also focuses on that to cover up
all these gaps and make it able enough to represent the cultural factors and values as well. In
contrast to this, de-Miguel-Molina, de-Miguel-Molina and Rumiche-Sosa (2011) says the
mobilities perspective focuses on the fact that some sociological approaches have been failed
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that they were not even able to represent the importance of various mobilities in tourism. So, for
covering and fulfilling that gap, the mobilities perspective provides a sort of enrichment
theoretically as well as practically which was implying all the sources of the tourism mobilities
in Maldives such as corporeal, realistic, capital etc. This perspective helped in opening various
ways which helped in relocating the essential aspects of the tourism in Maldives as it also
included both the exotic as well as the banal. It also provided some sort of support in reducing
the terrorism level so that the tourists in Maldives can be able enough to feel safe and secure and
also, can enjoy their time there. These perspectives have been successful enough in positioning
the level of tourism in Maldives to a huge extent.
According to Zubair, Bowen and Altinay (2015), there is adequate amount of potential in
the tourism industry to keep growing for quite a long time. Growth structure of the industry is
driven by population growth, economic affluence, expansion of business, increase in travel
pattern linked to age, etc. Stronger impact of different social factors such as electronic connect
and globalised culture has also been analysed on tourism. However, as per the views of Shakeela
and Becken (2015), it is difficult to fulfil the choices and requirements of travellers. Hence,
Maldives tourism have been involved in constant innovation and tourist focussed activities so
that it can becomes a destination which can get maximum attention in highly competitive tourism
industry. In that case, it becomes important for destinations to understand conditions of market
and position according to same so that demands of people can be fulfilled in the best possible
manner.
It has been assessed that Maldives tourism have reached to a saturation level where at this
time the number of customers can not increase after this level. The overall travelers from Asian
and pacific region have reduced to minimum as they tend to choose other tourism destination
then Maldives. A downward trend has been noticed in tourism in the recent years. It shows that
the impact of tourism on Maldives have reduced to the minimum. Moreover, the destination is
reaching to its saturation point.
According to Buckley, Guitart and Shakeela (2017), Maldives has been able to maintain
its position as one of the most preferred and attractive holiday destinations in 2016. The average
arrival growth rate of inbound international tourists is 1.7% in first six months of 2016. There
were approximately 619,921 international tourists that entered the state for tourism purpose in
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first six months of 2016 where highest number of visitors to Maldives were experienced in
month of February. However, as per the views of Cagua, and et.al., (2014), a significant decrease
of 11.4% in the number of tourists from China was noticed in first half of 2016. Still, China
remains to be one of the contributors from inbound international market with average market
share of 25.4% in the end of 2016. A significant decrease of tourists from Asian countries has
also hit Maldives. Furthermore, European outbound tourism has shown a positive growth due to
current revive in European economy. It helps in increasing the growth rate of outbound tourism
in countries. Hence, maximum amount of tourism was experienced in Maldives in the first year.
Some of the states from European territory include United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Other
primary sources of tourists from the market include tourists from Saudi Arabia, India and
Australia.
According Neumayer and Plümper (2016), when tourists visit a place, then adequate
amount of impact is noticed on hospitality industry as well. As per the statistics of Maldives
Tourism, there are four categories of tourists’ accommodation in Maldives. There are 117 tourist
resorts, 354 guest houses, 17 hotels and 141 safari vessels. As per the data collected for first half
of 2016, highest occupancy rate was achieved by resorts with 75.5%, 40% was managed to be
gathered by hotels, safari vessels enjoyed 32.5% of occupancy and 31.5% was gained by guest
houses.
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Figure 1: Key Tourism Indicators
(Source: 2016 Maldives Tourism Industry Review, 2017)
Despite of facing various challenges, tourism in Maldives has been able to reflect
adequate amount of growth performance in 2016 as compared to that of 2015. An arrival of total
tourists of 1,286,135, inbound international travellers were enjoyed by the state with a record
growth rate of 4.2% in annual average tourist arrival growth rate in comparison to its figures in
2015 which was 2.4% only (Patterns of Tourism Development in the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
2015). However, 92% of the total government target was achieved which was 1.4 million tourists
for the year 2016.
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Figure 2: Tourist Arrival Market Share by region
(Source: 2016 Maldives Tourism Industry Review. 2017)
Moderate recovery has been enjoyed by Maldives through economies of eurozone in
2016. After a constant decrease in total market share by the region till 2015, a steady pick has
been arrived from outbound tourist arrivals. Further, a stagnated growth of 46.5% have been
received through Asia and Pacific region. Market share from the side of Arica have been
increasing at as slower pace where current status as per 2016 report is that of 3.9% (Patterns of
Tourism Development in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. 2015).
There are various direct or indirect impact of tourism. It includes, environmental impact,
sociocultural impact and economic impact. Environmental impact includes, carrying capacity of
the area, air quality, vegetation etc. Socio economic impact includes, interaction between people
belonging to different cultural backgrounds, attitudes, behaviours etc. Economic impact includes,
social stability, better services and positive contribution to employment.
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According to Bowen, Zubair and Altinay (2016), another important aspect after
hospitality is infrastructural and connectivity aspect. With an increasing demand of tourism
industry, Maldives have been involved in constant development of supporting connectivity and
infrastructure. One of the major aspect that has been considered by Maldives is its expansion of
tourism industry which was done by the government of the country in 2016. Further, one of the
major project which is expected to be completed in 2018 is related to 3400 meters long runway
with a width of 60 meters along with 120,000 cargo terminals and a fuel farm.
Another important aspect of maintaining position in the competitive market of tourism
one of the prominent aspect of renowned destination of travel in the world. Maldives have been
able to win various recognition awards for its continuity in attracting large number of tourists
towards it. Pertaining to its achievements in various field, Maldives have received appreciation
as World’s leading dive destination, Indian Ocean’s leading beach destination, Indian Ocean
leading Honeymoon destination, etc.
According to Shakeela and Weaver (2016), there have been a strong impact of travel
behaviour of generation Y and millennials, falling between the age of 20 to 35, on global travel
industry being planned these days. The adoption for social networking websites and internet ahs
made them quite tech savvy. They are adaptive to adventurous trip and always want to grow and
educate themselves with the new knowledge they gather through travel. It has led to an
emergence of new trend of travelling, which includes, documenting of the trips with the help of
mobile photography, extensive use of social media, experiencing adventurous travel, etc.
However, in contrast to this as per the views of Fallati, Savini, Sterlacchini and Galli (2017), a
constant change in buying behaviour pattern of millennials, it become important for the tourism
industry to focus upon their needs and fulfil the requirements so as to stay competitive in the
market. It has led to bring major modifications and transformations to the travel industry. Hence,
it has arose the requirements for the tourism of Maldives to set new and innovative mega trends
in the global travel market. Some other products being pressed by this generation includes, spas,
freshly pressed juices and requirement of raising the standards of giving other complimentary
services. Appropriate promotion of travel industry and development of infrastructural facilities
can help in bringing large chunk of international tourists to the country.
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According to Ponting (2014), The tourism of Maldives has been involved in continuously
focussing on new and emerging trends of the market of tourism. It has been shared by the
government through integrated marketing campaign which is mentioned as “Story of Maldives”.
A strong focus has been made on food, experimental travel, ecotourism and cultural tourism. The
campaign has helped the country to have high exposure to millennial travellers falling between
the age group of 20 to 35 years. Maldives is known for its natural beauty through blue ocean and
white beaches which is escorted by clear air. The state is also able to gather extra attention due to
its ideal weather to get engaged in fishing, swimming, scuba diving, kite boarding and wind
surfing. It is due to which majority of the tourists get attracted towards it every year. This place
is considered to be largest revenue generator in the tourism industry. Maldives have been rated as
the best recreational diving destination of the world due its extraordinary underwater scenes.
However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Ali, Cullen and Toland (2015), tourism has
restricted to resorts where the adventurous activities are provided in the resort campus only.
There is no contact left with the general population of the country. Hence, people are not able to
develop their understanding with respect to the culture and traditions of the country.
According to Zimmerhackel and et.al. (2016), Adequate amount of promotion regarding
ecotourism has also been made by the government of Maldives where the resorts in the state are
giving adequate emphasis on recycling of heat which is wasted in producing electricity.
Government has also made laws regarding prohibition of catching turtles so as to maintain the
natural beauty of the environment. It also helps in reducing the damage that can be made to coral
reefs. However, in contrast to this as per the views of Kothari and Arnall (2017), certain tourism
ministries have criticized the state for not adopting adequate methods of protecting shark
population which are hunted to a large extend from the water bodies of the state. It has been seen
that there is a sharp decrease in number of sharks in Maldives. The management in Maldives
tourism have been taking adequate amount of actions so as to develop sustainability to the
location so that minimum harm can be done on flora and fauna for the sake of tourism
development in the state.
According to Meierkord (2017), a negative impact on ecological systems have also been
noticed due to various tourist’s activities, such as, diving, snorkelling and overfishing. These are
the factor that are promoting deterioration in the environment. A constant change in the quality
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of water in the water bodies have also been noticed due to constant destruction of coral reefs
which is damaged by tourist divers. Reefs have been considered as one of the most attracted part
of Maldives tourism. Any destruction in coral reefs of the location will significantly decrease and
damage tourism of Maldives. Further, construction of resorts is removing trees and other natural
environmental beauty hold by that place. It has been causing soil erosion in the island. Soil
erosion have also taken place due to rock filled jetties that barricades the movement of sand
leaving certain places with no sand. A strong impact on habitats have also been noticed due to
hike in construction rate. However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Hosterman and Smith
(2015), contamination of the island being done by the tourists visiting Maldives has also
increased issues for local people. It leads to the occurrence of contamination of lagoons. It may
occur due to sweeping of liquid waste and sewage to lagoons. A constant growth in sea grass and
algae have also been noticed on the sea beds which look dirty. It makes the tourists feel that
Maldives is going to lose its charm as a tourist destination soon. Further, the rubbish island of the
country is growing one square meter per day. However, the main issue ids that it is just one
meter away from the sea. Hence, over accumulation of rubbish can bring the sea level to
dangerous situation. Moreover, accumulation of toxic chemical in sea in the form of cadmium
and mercury can give significant harm to marine life of that particular area. Hence, it can be
stated that there is a requirement to take adequate amount of actions by the authorities so that
natural beauty of the island can be preserved in the best possible manner for attracting large
number of tourists towards it for quite a long number of years.
According to Pratt (2015), there is a negative impact of tourism on locals of the state. It is
because there are majority of resorts that are owned by multinational companies which shows
that local people are not able to generate adequate amount of revenue from sales. Majority of the
revenue is transferred overseas. The large group tour which tend to visit the country for the
purpose of tourism, in that case, they opt for foreign hotel set up due to their effective marketing
strategy and well-established team. It makes difficult for local tourism to attract tourist towards
their set up. However, in contrast to this, as per the views of Modica and Uysal 2016, a positive
impact of tourism has also been assessed on local people of Maldives. People living in the state
have higher employment opportunities in resorts, hotels etc. The research states that more than
11% of the total Maldives population is employed in tourism sector. It is able to bring $600
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million a year and able to produce approximately 60% as the total foreign currency earned. It is
the method of accounting 90% of the total government’s revenue.
Maldives have been constancy taking steps to preserve its natural beauty so that it can
attract large number of customers towards it for maximum number of years. However, the areas
and attraction of tourists keeps changing and it becomes difficult for the countries to maintain
this pace with it. There are approximately seven stages of life cycle of tourism.
The first is exploration stage, when the number of tourists vising to a state is small with
irregular visiting patterns. At this stage tourists tend to make their individual arrangement for
destinations and no specific or special facilities are provided to them from the side of the
government.
The second stage of cycle is involvement stage, where local people tend to get involved
in giving services and facilities to the tourists who tend to come in regular patterns to the nation
for tourism purposes. Promotion and marketing is carried out at small scale.
The third stage is development stage where tourist market is developed in the country in a
well defined manner though advertising about the destination in tourism generating countries
natural and cultural destinations are prepared at a small level for attracting maximum number of
tourists towards it. The number of tourists arriving at this destination is then equal or more to the
prevailing population. Since, it is progressive stage, expatriate labour is also attracted to serve
the purpose and attract maximum number of people as tourists towards it.
At the fourth stage, consolidation takes place. Tourists are considered to be the
significant part of the tourism industry, but at this stage the number of tourists begins to decline
(Rasheed, 2015).
At the fifth stage, it is considered to be a stagnation level where number of tourists
arriving at the destination is at peak and from this point the number of tourists starts to decline.
The destination tends to become outdated and less people consider it for tourism purpose.
The sixth stage is considered to be decline stage where number of tourists tend to decline
where it becomes difficult for the destinations to compete with new and emerging competitors.
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Different tourist facilities tend to get converted into permanent tourist homes or function
facilities.
At the seventh and the last stage, rejuvenation may occur (Buckley, Guitart and Shakeela, 2017).
The destination may be added to man-made attractions to mould the venture in some new
direction.
Analysing all the stages of the life cycle of tourism, it can be assessed that Maldives is at
third stage of life cycle, which is a development stage. Maldives have been involved in
promoting its tourist destinations at different countries which have maximum number of
potential tourists. Further, the number of tourists arriving at nation for tourist are more than the
population of the country. Since, it is considered to be a progressive state, the country is able to
attract maximum number of tourist towards it (Didi, Nizam and Hamza, 2016).
From the above essay, it can be concluded that, Maldives have become as one of the most
preferred destination of the world where people visit to get in touch with natural beauty with
adventurous sports. It is the most preferred destination by the millennium generation, lying
between the age bar of 18 – 35 years. Further, hospitality is another important aspect of tourism
industry where resorts have been maintained by multinational companies. It helps in generating
maximum revenues in the form of foreign currency. The tourism department of Maldives takes
appropriate actions so that the sustainability of destination can be promoted and large number of
people can be attracted towards it for maximum number of years.
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REFERENCES
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Maldives. Annals of Tourism Research. 64. pp.185-199.
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Meierkord, C., 2017. English in paradise: the Maldives: English is rapidly establishing itself as a
second language in a society transforming from fishing to tourism and trade. English
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Rasheed, A.A., 2015. Development, development policy and governance in the Maldives: A
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Shakeela, A. and Becken, S., 2015. Understanding tourism leaders’ perceptions of risks from
climate change: an assessment of policy-making processes in the Maldives using the social
amplification of risk framework (SARF). Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 23(1). pp.65-84.
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Telfer, D.J. and Sharpley, R., 2015. Tourism and development in the developing world.
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Online
2016 Maldives Tourism Industry Review. 2017. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.hoteliermaldives.com/2016-maldives-tourism-industry-review/. >
Patterns of Tourism Development in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. 2015. [Online]. Available
through < https://www.hoteliermaldives.com/patterns-tourism-development-maldives-
sri-lanka-similarities-differences/>
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