Birds Eye View OF MAldives

The Maldivian Presidents office has announced that the country had 67,478 Tourists for the month of January. This makes it the strongest January in Tourist arrivals for the past five years. The Maldives private and Tourism Board has been extensively marketing Maldives for the past five years, while Maldivian Resorts have consistently scooped up travel awards world wide.

Sim Mohamed from MATI ( Maldives Association of Tourism Industry) said that while tourist figured did increase significantly, there have been some drastic dynamic changes in the tourism industry. Sim said  there has been alot of “surface arrivals”  (i.e. passengers in passenger liners passing though Maldives in a relatively less amount of time ) and these passengers  do not stay for the traditional  periods of time and tend to spend less , thus injecting less money into the economy.

He Also noted due to the global down turn in tourism, many Maldivian Resorts and Tour Operators have drastically cut their prices , some as steep as 30- 40 percent. This together with the introduction of many Low Budget Airlines has Made Maldives a much cheaper Destination than before. While this has increased tourist numbers and generated more money for the economy as Maldivian Government Bed Tax  the disposable income from Medium  Tourism Market is less hence it would take some time for the whole economy as a whole to fully benefit from the increased Tourism Arrivals .

The Maldivian Tourism Industry has been in a slow growth rate, first the aftermath of the Tsunami then the global financial crisis, but this has prompted the Tour Operators to be more innovative. The Fastest growing sector in the Tourism Industry in Maldives is the Live Abroad sector. This gives an affordable Alternative To Travel,Dive and Surf in the MAldives at Cheaper Rates.

MATTI says its staying positive for the yrear 2010 forecasting modest growth , but hoping it would materialize to a more significant Tourism Growth for the years after that.

The South Face of Lhotse Mountain

Buddha Air has daily flights flying from various domestic Air Ports and air strips across Nepal.  You might want to specially book into one of the mountain viewing packages, that gets you flying above the cloud cover along the mountains giving you unprecedented views of these vast misty snow covered ranges!

Some of the mountain rages that are on usual Packages are the Kanchenjunga- 8584 meters , Cho Oyu- 8000 meters , Lhotse 8500 meters and of course the Himalayan Ranges… Spoil you selves with the Breath taking views while enjoying the luxuries of the Modern world and traditional Nepalese Hospitality !!!

The home of Whale Sharks have been turned into a Marine Park, visits to these amazing creatures are regulated, you could actually dive with them provided you don’t get too close to them.  South Ari Atoll Marine Park also is home to a research facility for the study of whale shark Behavior. ( note; they just observe their travel pattens ect. not ummm capture kill or confine them in any way) More information on Maldives Whale Shark Research Program found at :  http://www.maldiveswhalesharkresearch.org

Most Maldivian Tours and resorts have packages that cater for Whale Shark Spotting and Diving.. The Luxury Resort of Diva Maldives is actually located whiting the Marine park for whale sharks and is the proud first member in setting up the  voluntary gratuity scheme for the Whale Shark Conservation Park   So when you make your travel plans make sure you book in to experience this amazing Trip With the Sharks!!

Pic Only : Thanks to Zac Wolf !

The Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka lies in the heart of the Colombo business district. Taj Samudra is one of the most luxurious  Hotels in Colombo. A pleasant surprise is  even though they spoil you with large rich classy rooms, the prices are not to steep. It is quite normal to fetch a deluxe room for under USD$ 150.00 to suits that pamper to your every need. Most rooms you would have a choice of either open views to the glistening blue sea or the pool side which is an excellent feature of this stately hotel.

Taj Samudra is also an excellent choice for business functions, the hotel is able to accommodate from 50 guests to a massive 400 guest board rooms and since its located minutes walking distance from the beach and the financial CBD of Colombo , the guests can work and play at the same location! In addition to these features the hotel boasts a fully equipped gym, saunas, spas and a comfortable pool area where u can relax and enjoy the tropical climate….

Bookings can be mad via the website or by phone:

25 Galle Face Centre Road

Colombo 03

Sri Lanka,

Tel: (94-11) 2446622

Fax: (94-11) 2446348

Email: samudra.colombo@tajhotels.com

Web: www.tajhotels.com

Picture courtesy of: Mayakaru

Traditionally trade and diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan has been rocky but  in recent times, both countries have been seen to increase  corporation in trade and anti- terror talks. If a fright train network is built , it could be a huge stepping stone for the SAARC regional trade integration. In January 2004 SAFTA the SAARC trade agreement was signed by the member countries to work towards a trading block much like the tariff free agreements among the EU.

A rough estimate  of intra-regional trade for the SAARC countries exceed $ 700 billion and SAFTA together with a smoother freight network would dramatically further increase  regional trade while reduce costs and barriers to trade and invest within the region. India has also is rumored to have had talks about drawing up plans to  make a block on Crude Oil purchases, which some economists believe would give the SAARC member states more bargaining power in Oil purchase negotiations.

A more integrated SAARC would be beneficial to all the members states India,Pakistan,Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan,Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan promoting faster economic growth and democratic values.

Among the SAARC countries Nepal has had relations with Israel the longest.  Nepal established  diplomatic relations with Israel in 1960, and always enjoyed a warm relationship with with Israel with King Mahendra visiting Israel in 1963. India being the biggest nation in SAARC region as well as being a strong ally of United States and the democratic world established diplomatic relations with Israel and remains one of the closest allies of Israel in SAARC.

 Israel and India  have defense trade agreements, space programs and anti- terrorist agreements among various regions of corporation. Bhutan has officially not  expressed any desire to  establish diplomatic relations with Israel, but Bhutan remains  diplomatically neutral with all the countries of the world. In 2005 the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan had bilateral talks, which concluded in the Pakistani president Musharaff stating that Pakistan will eventually establish diplomatic relations with Israel but only after an Independent Palestine State was created. Sri Lanka previously had a brief break in diplomatic connection with Jerusalem but remains a close ally of Israel. 

Within the SAARC block only Afghanistan and Bangladesh remains opposed to establishing relations with Israel to date. With Maldives signing  agreements in tourism, trade, health care and environmental research with  Israel, most of the SAARC region is now a new frontier to Israeli tourists and trade. This also gives the opportunity for the people of SAARC unrestricted access to  travel and explore the holy land. 

Maldives the flattest country on earth is threatened by sea level rises caused by global warming has introduced a green tax on tourism for the first time. Earlier in the year the Maldivian President Nasheed Announced an ambitious plan for the Maldives to be the first carbon neutral country within a decade.

This is the first time Maldives has charged a Green Tax, thought the Maldivian tourism sector has always been regulated with tough environmental impact plans ect. All island and Resort buildings, expansion and renovations has to have an environment impact assessment carried out and submitted to the Maldivian Ministry of Environment for approval (this excludes domestic buildings and smaller buildings in capital territories).

In order to keep with the Carbon Neutral theme a few of the resort islands have already started working towards being carbon neutral : Soneva Fushi Resort, a luxury island has already started the planning and implementation stage to try and become the first Carbon Neutral Resort in Maldives.

The green tax is said to be USD$ 3.00 per night per tourist which is estimated to earn the billion dollar local economy an estimated USD$ 6 million to help in its fight to reduce and eliminate its carbon foot print. In addition Maldives is seeking to buy Carbon offsets from EU to offset the emissions that tourists would use to Travel to the Maldives. Maldives plans to become a voluntary member in the European Unions Carbon Trading System to buy and offset its own carbon emissions and the carbon emissions caused by people visiting the tropical island nation.

Eco-Tourism in Maldives has always been a concept that the local tour operators have have been keen to maintain, since everyone in the country realizes how fragile the environment is and any damage to the environment would be very tragic to its community. Maldives would be in attendance to the Copenhagen talks on setting up a frame work on reducing Carbon Emissions which would replace the Kyoto Protocol.

As a part of a dramatic overhaul of the island economy of Maldives, the government of Maldives has announced to privatize the biggest Airport in the country. Traditionally The Maldivian economy has been open to new investments while , key infrastructure (e.g. Sea Ports, Telephone,Energy,Transport network and Airports) has been under direct government control.

The economy in the island nation has been booming for a long while, interestingly while usually in  most economies as the economy expands and GDP rises the size of the government administration shrinks  and privatization leads to lesser involvement of the government in commercial activity. In Maldives however is has rather taken an unusual path, the size of the Civil Service boomed with the economy ending up with over 10% of the total population working in the public sector, while sectors like transport  previously dominated by private sector was overtaken by the ‘mega government corporations ‘ like the State Trading Organization and MTCC.

The mid 2000’s saw a wave of change in peoples attitudes towards economy and the role of the government in it. The change from the Gayoom Administration to the current Nasheed Administration saw a major shift in privatization policies, specially in opening up the key infrastructure for privatization. The Male’ International Airport was opened in April 1966, since then various upgrades and master plans has transformed this tiny strip of runway to a fully functioning and a key airport in the South East Asian Region. The airport currently is near a maximum capacity with almost  at a 200,000 passengers growth rate. ( in 2006 it was 1.57 million passengers, in 2007 it was 1.81 million) The government has requested the World Bank to find investors for this massive privatization phase of the airport.

Once the Male’ International Airport has been privatized there is speculation that there might be a move to privatize the remaining Gan International Airport as well(located North of Maldives) .Currently Gan Airport has very few chartered International services running once a fortnight mainly from europe, but with many Island resorts springing up around  the Gan Region it is expected to handle as many passengers as  its sister the Male’ International Airport.

Currently there are almost forty airlines making scheduled and chartered flights to and from Maldives some of them include: Aeroflot-Cargo, Air Europa, Air Europe, Air Holland, Air Maldives, Air Tours International, Austrian Airlines, BAL, BBB, British Airways, Balkan Bulgarian, Condor, Elbee Airlines, Emirates, Expo Aviation, Indian Airlines, LTU Int´l, Lauda Air, Malaysia Airlines, Monarch, Nordic East Airways, Pakistan Int´l, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Sky Cabs, South African Airways, Srilankan Airines/Cargo, Uzbekistan Airways and are in negotiations with budget airlines to diversify the tourism market.

AT the seminar the positive relationship of social liberation with  higher Gross Domestic Product resulting in lower corruption in the public and private sectors while opening up markets for the region was highlighted. India seems to be at the forefront of the economic liberalization in the SAARC region with many Free Trade Agreements being signed bilaterally with fellow SAARC countries. Mr.Sayeed also said that the 1.7 percent in world trade from the region had a lot more potential to grow, specially since  SAARC is home to more than one fifth of the world population. The current levels of inter-regional trade stood at mere 6 percent while intra-regional trade in, EU 58 percent, NAFTA was 62 percent and ASEAN 26 percent.

H.E. Sharat Sambharwal, the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan was the guest of honor, he said that it was India’s and specially Dr.Manmohan Singh’s vison to see South East Asia being transformed to a knowledge-biased economy. This could be achived only by rapidly increasing the pace and scope of the current inter-economic activity within SAARC.

The president of Maldives Mr.Mohamed Nasheed and the Indian Defense Minister A.K. Anthony after extensive meetings on different levels of both governments announced a series of steps both countries have taken to ensure safety and territorial sovereignty. Recent attacks of Somalian pirates in the far regions near the African coast has alerted countries as far away as Maldives.

Under the defense pact, joint Maldivian and Indian Navy and coast guard vessels will be patrolling the Maldivian Exclusive Economic Zone and the boarders of the Maldives. After the Mumbai attacks India has stepped up maritime surveillance around its territorial waters. Both Maldivian and Indian authorities stressed the importance of preventing possible terrorist attacks, earlier in the year the Maldivian coast guard with areal surveillance from the Indian Navy intercepted and sunk a suspected terrorist vessel smuggling weapons crossing the Maldivian Borders, its destination was believed to be Sri Lanka, but cannot be confirmed.

India  has agreed to provide Maldives with coastal radars which would eventually be linked to a South Asian Seas Defense command post in India, currently Maldives has only two coastal radars protecting its twenty two Atolls. Further more a twenty-five bed Military hospital was also donated by the Indian Military, the Maldivian Defense Force has many doctors and specialists trained but currently lacks an official Military hospital. A press release from the MNDF (Maldivian National Defense Force) revealed that while this is  a military hospital , civilians will also have the possibility of receiving treatment specially in emergency cases.

Maldives has also begun setting up an Air wing for its military. Primarily the air wing would provide surveillance and rescue operations. India has pledged technical assistance to train Maldivian pilots and maintenance crews while donating two helicopters to the Maldivian Defense Force. As Maldives is an island nation the importance of fast access to advanced medical facilities is crucial, currently sea planes are hired commercially for such medical evacuations to bring patients suffering from critical injuries and accident to hospitals and over seas.

Some critics say that this could jeopardize the sovereignty of Maldives both Indian and Maldivian authorities reassures that these are necessary steps to  international anti -terrorism safety and there is definitely not going to be any interference from Indian authorities in Maldives. There has been some rising tensions in the region with China setting up a base in Sri Lanka which India has always viewed as its own back yard, and the defense pact with Maldives could be a step to re-establish themselves in the Indian Ocean. Maldives is a signatory to the non-aligned movement and enjoys excellent relations both commercially and diplomatically with both India and China.