the nation

when did, and how did we end up here in Maldives is a question never answered or partly answered till today. From the world history Maldives can only be traced to from the manuscripts of Ibn Batuta. Sometimes I imagine given the reality of average island population, for instance when British people evacuated Gan inhabitants it was recorded there were some 900 people. If you apply the population growth rate, or children born rate, or average big families of some 12 children each. It would not be foolish to understand or conclude that the start of Gan Civilization would have been very near, perhaps less than 100 years. For instance today after 60 years the same Gan island population which migrated to feydhoo island is now 5000. That means almost 500 percent increase on 60 years, if that reality remain than Gan island before 60 years would be few people or first settlers. But strangely even when Maldives got Islamic back in 1000 years still Gan was recoded in Maldives history as an inhabited island.

May be something bizarre was going on in Maldives, perhaps the large number of population was getting extincted over and over again in these islands history for unknown reason, perhaps due to epidemics, or perhaps due to tsunamis or other reason which god knows.

This condition has to be applied for the history researchers of Maldives, for why the island populations did not grew over thousands of years, when there is no known civil wars in Maldives.

Changing Tourism

i havent been blogging for long time. Not sure if anyone visit this blog anymore. But i am still here waiting for something good to happen sitting in my small office. Dreaming to have a stake on the changing tourism. my last atempt to of to geting a resort failed with a lucky draw of more than 2000 applicants. The number i had was so unlucky that i was not even close to the winner's number.

But inspite of all. i must say Maldives has been doing good now, interms of policy and changing paterns. But what is surprising is with this magnitude of proposed resorts the real mechanics of the scene is totally ignored. or perhaps not understood by those who put forwards 100s of islands for bid.

You see my point. What i am trying to say is even though goverment big many many resorts there are no normal locals who can efford to make it. there is no invesment plans. Means all the resorts again one way or other goes to the same ppl who have already resorts. if a small guy win, he will have to give or sell it other. but few lucky ones manage to get partnerships. but no one really knows how the agreement is drawn finally. is it 5% vs 95%. or what

What is really needed is invesment bank, a bank who is ready to give loans on who ever who get the bid done.

May be it will happen soon, if that happens a Maldives Blogger like me will want to be the first person to open their door. hehe

The post CROSS WORLD MALDIVES

Many of the people who are working in tourism industry, Cross World Maldives isn’t a new name. It was one of the most successful local travel agency ever operated in Maldives. A full geared and capable travel agent filling thousands of rooms in Maldives. Inner Maldives and few successful travel agents are people who have worked in Cross World Maldives. Almost every person in tourism industry of Maldives has some kind of opinion about this agency….

Sadly before it even reached its peak it collapsed. Until now I never realized what went wrong. Is it bad management or any other problem? There are different stories, but I managed to speak to one of the director and according to him it was because of Gan Project. The company operated Ocean Reef Club, presently Equator Village at Gan Addu. For him the company over invested in Gan project which didn’t operated well due to operational difficulties. And this turned out a disaster.

But what is worth to mention is due to the closure of this agency, there had been huge impact of the perception of the people who operated resorts. Since lot of resort’s beds were allotted and filled by this agency. The unfilled rooms became a problem. This is where perhaps a new trend born, where resort owners found the need to market themselves their product. But sadly the new culture had no space for another local travel agency. Perhaps they lost faith in local agents. Or perhaps they didn’t want to take risks. Whatever the answer to this might be, this discouraged a localised selling process. The industry unfortunately went 100 percent to foreign tour operators. This isn’t healthy for the sustainable development of the industry.

Years after cross world, nothing changed to the trend, no local operator is yet capable of addressing the answer nor are they able to bring themselves to the operational standard as Cross World.

Welcome to my blog

Inspite many of us been working in tourism industry of Maldives, few actually write about this industry. There have been many occasions while working in this industry we felt like telling the management of the resort to change that. or telling the ministry to change this. The industry's feelings are yet to be shared. Ofcourse we see some magazines, few articles always talkign how beautiful Maldives is. But there are many facets which we never discussed. Welcome to my blog, here atleast you will see opinion of one of those person's working in this industry