The Maldives, known for $2,000-a-night white-sand-and-turquoise-ocean atoll retreats, is hoping to build a more affordable tourism industry. But it’s facing a challenge from the country’s more religiously conservative population, writes Tom Wright for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
“Former Tourism Minister Mariyam Zulfa, who lost her job last week as the national government was ousted, had a plan to develop mid-range accommodation on some of the Indian Ocean nation’s lesser-developed islands. There are about 1,200 islands in all, although only 200 of them are inhabited.
The plan also called for a job-creating entertainment complex of bars, nightclubs and even a casino on an island close to Male, the capital, modeled on Singapore’s Sentosa island development.
Even before the plan got off the ground, it ran into opposition from Islamist leaders. They rejected what they viewed as the encroachment of Western cultural imports – like alcohol and scantily-clad women – into local communities.
Since 1972, conservative Maldivians have acquiesced in the country’s development of luxury resorts. They were restricted to uninhabited atolls, to which hotel managers fly in Spanish chorizo and French champagne, as a way of minimizing contact with locals. That’s why the plan to bring mid-market tourism to inhabited islands became a rallying point for Islamists late last year.
The fight over the tourism plan played a significant role in the downfall of former President Mohamed Nasheed, who says he was ejected in an armed coup last week.
In the weeks leading up to Mr Nasheed’s ouster, Islamist leaders staged daily street protests which painted his government as un-Islamic, focusing on its plans for tourism. His political adversaries, including some big resort owners, joined the protests.”
