THE MALDIVES
A vow of growth O
The Maldives continues to be one of the Indian Ocean’s shining stars and the regular series of resort openings goes on, especially at the top end, says Alan Orbell
n the scale of the regular ‘tourism traumas’ faced by the travel industry on a seemingly weekly basis, the case of the
errant hotel worker in the Maldives who thought it good fun to vilify a Swiss couple renewing their wedding vows is way down the list of agents' problems. It raised as much mirth as it did opprobrium and the Maldives authorities moved very fast to mitigate any bad publicity – not surprising given the critical importance of tourism to the islands. The event has certainly deterred neither
visitor numbers nor new development in the islands and in fact proved the old
adage that any publicity is good publicity. Kuoni market manager Sheena Paton
has certainly seen no negative impact on business to the Maldives following the incident. “Both our renewal of vows and honeymoons bookings have seen an increase for 2011," she said. Shafique Cockar of Enchanting Holidays agrees. “There has not been any downside to that at all. I think the public are quite ‘travel-clever’ these days and understand that these and much worse things are one-offs and nothing to get overly excited or worried about.” Which is all to the good as the pace of development in the Maldives shows not
the slightest sign of slowing up; in fact with some 1200 islets – 200 of them inhabited – spread across 90,000 sq km of the Indian Ocean there’s room for a few more resorts yet. This year will see several new resorts
opening their doors to UK visitors. (See the What's New section). The Maldives is made up of 26 atolls
stretching north-south off India’s Lakshadweep islands about 435 miles (700km) south-west of Sri Lanka and 250 miles (402km)) south-west of India. The Maldives have an average ground level of 4ft 11in (1.5 metres) above sea level – the lowest country in the world
14 March 2011 •
www.sellinglonghaul.com
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