Millionaire’s dream and Maldivian’s reality can coexist in tourism industry: Nasheed

“The millionaire’s dream, and the Maldivian’s reality can co-exist and create a sustainable development model,” Nasheed told the forum in Colombo.

Describing the success of the guest house tourism model, he told stakeholders from the 53 member states that the exclusive one-island one-resort model has failed to benefit small island communities sufficiently.

“This model worked well for some. It worked for the resort owners and tour operators. And it worked for the central government, who profited handsomely from leasing islands for resort development. But had limited impact on the average Maldivian.”