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.

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.

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.

If you are a first time visitor or if you are planning on visiting Maldives for the first time, and if you are in need of advise and guidelines on selecting a resort, you can start from here.

The Maldivian resorts are on their own islands. The size of these islands ranges from 2.5km across to 150m across. So when you stay, you will have access to the facilities provided by the resort you choose. Most of the Maldives resorts offer tours by boat to nearby fishing village islands, or even to the capital Male’. But other than that, you will be staying in Resort Island during your stay. There are more about 90 resorts which you can choose from and it ranges from affordable to luxury.

How to choose a resort
Maldives has resorts with affordable prices also luxury resorts with unlimited pricing. Apart from the price there are other things that you need to consider in choosing a resort for you.

How to get to your resort
International flights arrive at Hulhule (Male’) airport, also now at South Gan airport. Many of the people who are on holiday arrive in Maldives by chartered flights. But there are flight services scheduled with Emirates (flies via Dubai), Qatar airlines (flies via Doha), Sri Lankan Airlines (flies via Colombo) and Singapore airlines which flies via Singapore.
Transport from the Airport to your resort is either by speed boat or seaplanes, and that depends on the distance from the airport island.

If you are willing to travel by seaplane, you have to be aware of few things. Seaplanes operate only during day time, so if you can’t arrive before sunsets you have to stay in Male’ overnight and travel to your resort the following day. To travel in Seaplane is a nice experience, but make sure that you sit near the window and have your camera ready to get shots of the spectacular views of the atolls. The seaplane will usually land next to a floating platform, and from there you will be picked by small boats to your resort.

Types of Accommodation
Most of the resorts have different varieties of accommodation types which vary with the cost. Before you chose a resort, have a look at the rooms in particular resort from their websites or brochures. Normally the rooms are single storey, as there are no high-rise hotels in the Maldive-islands, but there are some of the two-storey blocks where some are terraced and some are separated. There are rooms over the water in some of the islands, while there are rooms that are located directly on the beach.

The Maldives holds the record for being the flattest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 m (7½ ft), though in areas where construction exists this has been increased to several metres. Over the last century, sea levels have risen about twenty centimetres (8 in). The ocean is likely to continue rising and this threatens the existence of Maldives.