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Impacts of Tourism in the Maldives
Opportunities
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Impacts of Tourism in the Maldives
Video:
Brief overview of the Country & Tourism
Located to the south-west of India and the archipelago is made up of >1000 coral islands.
It is a UNESCO biosphere. (Find out about that here: http://www.unesco.org/mab/doc/faq/brs.pdf )
The Maldives were little known before 1972. They used to be reliant on fishing, but now they are reliant upon tourism.
Tourism in the Maldives : Facts & Figures
- There are 89 resorts that provide bed capacity for more than 17,000.
- Tourism makes up >31% of GDP and indirectly >70%.
- The Maldives supports 31,000 jobs which equals about 22% of direct total employment, and indirectly it employs ~50%.
- In 2011, 800,000 visited the Maldives.
- Tourism is the country's highest earner of foreign currency.
Economic opportunities created by tourism
The Maldives achieved middle income status in 2011. Incomes have risen from $400 in 1950 to around $5000 today.
Local airlines have expanded. Trans-Maldivian Airways (TMA) transports 2,000 each day by bus and sea. TMA is experiencing 8% growth per year and from 2005-11 transported 290,000 passengers.
Using the funds they have improved connecting transport and ferries/boats. Airstrips have been built on some larger islands.
A modern new luxury terminal has been built to give a great resort experience even before guests reach their hotel.
Social opportunities of tourism in the Maldives
They achieved 5 out of 8 of their Millennium development goals. They have focused on public sector reform, social benefits and adaption to climate change.
Literacy rates have grown from 82% in 1977 to 96% by 2006.
Healthcare - There is only one hospital on the capital island. Telekiosks and telemetricians have been set-up to help people over the phone.
Investment has created job opportunities - now 313,900 have state education and healthcare benefits.
For the smaller islands, they want to encourage eLearning, and to do this they are working on installing a submarine fibre optic internet cable.
Environmental impacts of tourism in the Maldives
- Reinvestment of profits into environmental help.
- Tourists can pay for steel coral structures and have their name on it. (1,100 of these have been set down thus far.)
- Maldives wants to be carbon-neutral by 2020.
- UNESCO marine biospheres.
- Tourism policies in harmony with nature and sustainable development.
- SMPs - Soft Engineering.
- Investing in Coral Reef Development.