24th August 2010, 11:30, Maldives, Maldivestoday.com

19 Strikers arrested

19 of the 200 staff striking at Kurumba Maldives have been arrested and detained at Dhoonidhoo Detention Centre. It’s the same jail where heavy weight political figures were detained recently and during 2004. The employees have called off the strike after Police detained 19 of the participants and removed them from Kurumba Maldives and transferred them to the notorious Dhoonidhoo Detention Centre late last night.

The Police say that they are not under arrest but held to investigate a complaint made by the management of the resort regarding damages done to the resort property.  This is the same story that the police gave after detaining leader of JP and Leader of PA few weeks back. At the time police didnot obey the court order and later they lost the case against the detained two political opponents.

Strikes in Maldivian resorts are defacing the good name that Maldives have earned as tourist destination.

Impact on the tourism industry

The strike and subsequent shut down of the resort operation is going to negative impact the overall tourism industry of the Maldives which is already performing low. Many of the resorts are under financial crisis and dont attract many tourists, rates have been sliced. The foreign tour operators will hesitate to send their tourists to Maldives due to incidents of this nature. The investor confidence on Maldives is going to be lost due to lack of protection on their million dollar resort property. We have learned that some of the local businessmen have started investing in other destinations such as Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius, Dubai and Thailand where the investment confidence and risk is lower.

Working for or against the tourism industry

It is also important that the very people who started and ran a boycott Maldives campaign few years back are in the government now. President Nasheed’s close associate and Founder of Friends of Maldives in UK, Mr. David Hardingham was behind planning and implementing the boycott campaign. The boycott campaign team also included President Nasheed, Aliu Shiyam, Current economic advisor to president, Mr. Simon Hawkins, current consultant and incharge of Maldives Tourism Promotion Board. Hence, there integrity to the nation and to the tourism industry is questionable.

Tourism Employees Association of Maldives “TEAM”

TEAM became very silent of matters concerning resort workers once MDP came to power and its president was elected to parliament as a member of MDP. The current president of TEAM ” Tourism Employees Association of Maldives” Mr. Ahmed Eesa is using the NGO to promote his party MDP propaganda and to anger the employees of resorts instead of trying to protect their rights through legislation and through better government policies. It’s is funny that being a member of Ruling MDP and its parliamentary group Mr. Eesa is still pointing his finger to the resort owners instead of asking his government colleagues to improve things for the employees of the resorts.

Maldives Association of Tourism Industry “MATI”

Sim Mohamed Ibrahim from the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) described the industrial action at Kurumba as “a clear reflection of what little protection is provided to investors and businesses under the present laws pertaining to the conduct of business in the country.”

“The reality of the situation is that an investment of millions of dollars can be crippled andheld at ransom within a few hours by its own employees, whose grievances may or may not be real,” Sim said, adding that this situation had recently occurred in several resorts.

“The situation in Kurumba is a case in point. On Sunday August 22 the resort occupancy [percentage] was in the 80’s. Towards evening that day occupancy had fallen to less than 20% percent,” Sim said. “Tourists, tour operators and senior management have been too terrified to remain in the resort, and today the resort is empty.”

“There should be no ground for any party to reduce visitors and businesses in this country to a state of fear and terror, whoever may be at fault. The government must provide tourists and investors with adequate protection,” Sim said.

Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators “MATATO”

Otherwise a vocal association MATATO has so far failed to say anything on the strike in Kurumba Maldives. We have learned that some of the foreign operators are concerned about the incident in Kurumba and fear the welfare of the guests. The incident in Kurumba is also going to negatively impact the travel agents business.

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture

There is no Minister currently in the ministry of tourism to head its activities. Nasheed has so far failed to appoint a Tourism Minister after Dr. Sawad was transferred to Attorney General Office. Tourism Ministry has recently failed to follow and implement the policies laid down in the 3rd Tourism Master plan from 2007-2011. Instead adhoc policies from Tourism Ministry, Housing Ministry, Fisheries Ministry is taking the tourism industry into great risks. Tourism Ministry, MATI, MATATO and other stakeholders were not consulted when the government gave Male’ International Airport to Indian GMR. It is likely that we might see another strike in the Maldives main Airport as GMR has started dismissing some of the airport staff.

Recently Tourism Ministry invited investors to bid for 4 islands to be developed as tourist resorts. However, only one of the resorts were actually awarded to the bidder. The remain three failed to acquire required acquisition cost. This is first in the history of Maldives Tourism industry resort bids offer were rejected by investors. It’s clear indication that Nasheed’s government tourism policy has failed.

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board

The board is headed by former employee of Minivan News Mr. Simon Hawkins from UK. Close friend of David Hardingham and Nasheed. Nasheed’s government is planning to shut down MTPB and transfer some of its work to Maldives Public Relations Corporation. It is believe that this corporation is likely to do government face lifting and other policies to promote Nasheed’s government instead promoting Maldives as a destination. Majority of the educated and experienced employees of MTPB has resigned due to government’s negligence. The resigned staff include Ismail Shaheer, Murad Hassan, Abdulla Naeem, Mohamed Maleeh Jamal and many more professional Maldivian employees. Since, their departure the board has almost ceased its operation and remain silent until their day of burial.

Tourism was once considered the the hen that lays golden egg are in the verge of being beheaded. Maldives will go completely bankrupt if the tourism industry fails even today.

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