Maldives:  “MV Tourism dollar”  not yet sinking.

Islamist zealots  try to wreck the Maldives tourism industry.

 

Male, 2 Jan 2012

 

By Lolita Tan

 

After a massive demonstration by Islamist zealots in the Maldive capital Male the government there found it necessary to give in to there demand and order the closure of all  spas and health centre in all the hotels on the islands but president Nasheed stepped in and the venues remain open.

 

The reason given was that the closed down venues engaged in “un Islamic”

activities  and where being used as a front for prostitution.

 

The Maldives are a up market destination catering for well off clients, honeymooners, divers etc. The main attraction are white beaches and plenty sunshine.  A snap survey of  PV among tourist visiting previously the islands revealed that none where aware even that such a problem exist. Indeed the Maldives lacking the infrastructure to cater for tourist interested to engage the service of sex workers. E.g. Nightlife is virtually non existing and the cost of alcoholic drinks are among the highest worldwide. A small beer could  be around $ 8.- ,a “Bacardi & coke”$ 15.-  “”Bring your own”” is also not possible because the Maldives are  one of the very few countries where arriving tourist are not permitted to bring any alcoholic drinks with them. Apparently moves are on the way to ban the sale of alcohol all together in the near future.

 There are ample destinations in the region where those problems do not exist, mainly India, Thailand, Sri Lanka just to name a few.

 

A recent event made it apparent that certain sections of the population in the Maldives do really not like  visiting tourist. Particularly sad was the case of a visiting Swedish couple who arranged with a local 5* star hotel  to have there “marriage vouch renewed” (At a considerable cost) The   ceremony was performed by a member of the hotel staff who verbally abused the couple in a most obscene fashion , while a number of other staff members where in attendance enjoying the show. Naturally the Swedish couple did not understand the local  language in which the “ceremony” was performed but the atrocity came alight when someone  with local language knowledge viewed the video taken   at a later stage. 

 

 

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