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The darker side of the tourist heaven Maldives
DestinationsPublic lashings. Religious extremists seizing power. A gay blogger with his throat slashed. Few of the million annual visitors to the Maldives will recognise the hellish side of these heavenly islands. Hilath Rasheed, the first openly gay and secular blogger in the Maldives, was about to walk through his front door one afternoon last year [...]
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Maldives cancels major airport project at the last minute sending a negative signal to investors
TransportMaldives has cancelled its biggest foreign investment project, a $511 million deal with Indian firm GMR Group to develop its international airport, raising questions over the future of foreign investment in the islands renowned for luxury resorts. The cancellation of the deal signed in 2010 follows President Mohamed Waheed’s failure to renegotiate terms, sources close [...]
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Maldives as tourism destination: From hopeless to hot spot
DestinationsA team of experts from the United Nations Development Programme went to the Maldives in the late 1960s and wrote a report on the prospects for tourism in the country. There were none, they concluded. Don’t even bother trying: the obstacles are too big. If that seems like the least perspicacious report in tourism history, [...]
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Maldives’ new leader introduces bans that could devastate tourism industry
DestinationsThe former president says resorts in the popular honeymoon destination may be made alcohol-free and spas could be banned.
Growing Islamisation could lead to the banning of spas, same-sex beaches and alcohol from holiday resorts in the Maldives, the co…
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Maldives tourism authority has massive Twitter fail: #dontgosocialafteryouhaveacoup
DestinationsSource: The Guardian Author: Haroon Siddique When the Maldives tourist authority hatched the idea of a Twitter campaign to boost the country’s credentials as a paradise island, it is unlikely it was expecting tweets about police brutality, coups d’état and political illegitimacy. But that is precisely what it got when it urged the Maldives tourist [...]
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The Maldives hopes tourists will pay voluntary taxes to keep the islands above sea level
DestinationsSource: Reuters Author: Nina Chestney A voluntary tax on tourists who visit the luxury resorts and white sands of the Maldives could raise up to $100 million a year towards the country’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2020, President Mohamed Waheed said. The Maldives is made up of 1,192 low-lying islands in the Indian [...]
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Video: A look at the Maldives’ less-scenic side
DestinationsThe Maldives are known as an unspoilt, paradise island destination for upmarket tourists but the BBC’s Simon Reeve has paid a visit to a part of the Maldives that tourists do not see – a huge island waste dump.
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New Maldives airline has a positive start
TransportMega Maldives Airlines is going after a growing niche, linking the increasingly affluent China with the tiny island nation of the Maldives.The company’s chief executive says his start-up is poised …
