The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...

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The Maldives depends on imports for commodities, including staple foodstuffs, petroleum, construction materials, and most of the goods needed for the tourism industry (UNESCAP, 2003). In 2007 over 15% of imports consisted of food products (MPND, 2007a). This dependence on imports makes the country’s economy very vulnerable to external shocks such as increases in fuel prices, which affect domestic inflation and tourism’s cost structure (ADB, 2008). In 2007, the average inflation rate was 7.4%, which was blamed mainly on food prices which rose 30% more than the previous year (ADB, 2008). The total labour force in 2007 was 110,231. With a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour, nearly one-third of the local labour force is comprised of expatriates (MPND, 2007a). Social and cultural norms restrict women’s participation in the tourism industry, resulting in a large percentage of expatriates being employed in the hotels and restaurant sector (MTCA, 2007b). Figure 4.5 illustrates the numbers of the local population and expatriates employed by industry. Figure 4. 5 Employment of locals and expatriates by industry 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 Source: MPND (2007a) 70 No. of locals No. of expatriates
4.4 Agriculture Agriculture plays only a limited role in the economy, accounting for only 2% of GDP and employing 4% of the total labour force in 2007 (MPND, 2007a). While the poor quality of the sandy soil and the shrinking freshwater lens in many of the inhabited islands limit agricultural potential, imported fruits and vegetables also impede local production. Most of the domestic agricultural demands are met through imports, with the ratio of food imports to domestic food production being 10:1 (ADB, 2008). This dependence on imports for most of its food requirements, including the staple food rice, makes the country vulnerable (MPND, 2007b). As Lutfy (1995) noted, from the time of the earliest settlers subsistence agriculture has been important for the livelihood of the local population. Traditionally, women played a significant role in agriculture, and they continue to do so today. Excluding the one-third of the population that lives in Male’, the majority of the population is scattered in rural areas. Fishing and subsistence agriculture form an essential means of occupation to this population as well as the main source of food security for the vast majority of the population (Shabau, 2008). A variety of crops including cereals, vegetables, fruit, tubers and plantation crops are cultivated in home gardens, plots and islands designated for agricultural purposes by the government (Lutfy, 1995). The coconut palm is an especially important tree for the people, with each and every part of the tree having a specific use. Coconuts form an integral part of the diet and coconut timber is widely used for boat building and construction. A special delicacy is rukuraa, a non-alcoholic drink made from coconut palm and the honey, dhiyaahakuru made by boiling the rukuraa, although in recent years the lack of interest by the younger generations for the professions of making these traditional items has seen them become less available. Each island has coconut groves and in most uninhabited islands the coconut palm is the main cultivated tree. In recent years the government has taken significant steps to develop agriculture (Naseer, 2007). Leasing islands for agriculture on a long-term basis and allocating selected large islands exclusively for agriculture are strategies expected to contribute to the recent commercialization plan for agriculture (ibid). To combat the lack of fertile land and fresh water, hydroponics farming has been introduced in the islands recently and this has been successfully producing melons, 71
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The Role of Local Food in Maldives
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CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
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Figure 5.26 Buffet dinner .........
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Attestation of authorship “I here
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Abstract In the fiercely competitiv
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1.1 Background to the study CHAPTER
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attractiveness and promoting sustai
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Figure 1. 1 Map of the Republic of
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW The
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and nationalities are broadened (Sh
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focus on creating “meaningful tou
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quality of their services and produ
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waiting list for future Guggenheim
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Natural and cultural attractions ar
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Page 31 and 32: Although the above inherent charact
Page 33 and 34: ituals and leisure (Tannahill, 2002
Page 35 and 36: and participation in the experience
Page 37 and 38: Cultural exploration is an integral
Page 39 and 40: 2002). As Jones and Jenkins (2002)
Page 41 and 42: Figure 2. 2 Isle of Arran food trai
Page 43 and 44: globalisation strong local food ide
Page 45 and 46: vegetarian pizza outlets are run by
Page 47 and 48: tradition are made sustainable in t
Page 49 and 50: tourism” (p. 115). As their examp
Page 51 and 52: Slow Food Award in 2000 which recog
Page 53 and 54: eing researched. Although the small
Page 55 and 56: On the other hand, the focus of the
Page 57 and 58: A disadvantage of case sstudies is
Page 59 and 60: 1. data triangulation: uses a range
Page 61 and 62: A number of international organisat
Page 63 and 64: Content analysis has been a valuabl
Page 65 and 66: 3.6.2 Surveys “A survey is a good
Page 67 and 68: Table 3. 2 Advantages vantages and
Page 69 and 70: 3.7 Data validity and reliability I
Page 71 and 72: 3.8 Survey characteristics Out of t
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Page 75 and 76: was a British protectorate from 188
Page 77 and 78: Figure 4. 2 Population growth rate
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Page 83 and 84: population was badly affected by th
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Page 87 and 88: As tourism became established in th
Page 89 and 90: prospect repeatedly proclaimed by e
Page 91 and 92: Table 4. 1 Maldives tourist arrival
Page 93 and 94: Figure 4. 8 Market share of top ten
Page 95 and 96: provided a slow burning barbecue to
Page 97 and 98: Figure 4. 13 Rukuraa and raabadhi S
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Page 101 and 102: possible” (Sarantakos, 1998, p. 2
Page 103 and 104: Table 5. 3 Frequency of images in p
Page 105 and 106: (Figure 5.3). As Figure 5.4 illustr
Page 107 and 108: Figure 5. 6 Dining experience Sourc
Page 109 and 110: Figure 5. 9 Website with no informa
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Page 113 and 114: Figure 5. 11 Screw pine Source: Mal
Page 115 and 116: Figure 5. 14 Local ‘tea’ ceremo
Page 117 and 118: Hence, the kind of analysis needed
Page 119 and 120: Figure 5. 18 Barbecue menus Source:
Page 121 and 122: Figure 5. 19 Seafood display Source
Page 123 and 124: Figure 5. 22 Unloading fish to the
Page 125 and 126: chefs in our booming tourist indust
Page 127 and 128: Figure 5. 25 Activities featured as
Page 129 and 130: Table 5. 5 Importance of using loca
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CHAPTER SIX: DEVELOPING LINKS BETWE
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Table 6. 3 Number of respondents th
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ight quality of products from these
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experts, “It is of great potentia
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have failed to utilise”. One of t
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Figure 6. 1 Number of local and for
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local cuisine. This warning echoes
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• Since tourism operators and exp
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to authentic local foods. In additi
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products. This would pave the way f
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• Promote Maldives as an environm
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Figure 6. 4 Garudhiya bai meal Sour
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Figure 6. 7 Canned curries, garudhi
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Figure 6. 11 Screw pine fruit and n
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Figure 6. 14 Short eats Source: Mal
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Figure 6. 16 Smooth loofah, Thoraa
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Figure 6. 19 Malaafaiy Source: Leis
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Figure 6. 21 Drinks made with local
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CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS In an in
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list ‘local’ food items were of
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apparent from tourism marketing mat
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operator” (Omidi, 2009b). Those r
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Bibliography ADB. (2005). Country s
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Buhalis, D. (2001). The tourism phe
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Everett, S., & Aitchison, C. (2008)
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Heath, E., & Wall, G. (1992). Marke
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Lutfy, M. I. (1995). Dhivehiraajjeg
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MTCA. (2007b). Tourism Yearbook. Ma
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Ravenscroft, N., & Westering, J. V.
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Sheehan, K. (2001). E-mail survey r
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Veal, A. J. (1997). Research method
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Appendix 1 - Operators’ Questionn
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185
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Appendix 3 - Participant Informatio
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Appendix 4 - Ethics Approval 197
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Committee. Until full approval has
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