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Night fishing is a particularly popular activity – the trips usually end with a barbecue at the resort with the day’s catch. Aerial excursions by seaplane and submarine diving are also provided by some resorts. Most resorts and hotels have facilities for a variety of indoor and outdoor sports such as tennis, football, volleyball, badminton and squash. Live entertainment programmes are held in the evenings, often with local bands and dance troupes. As a diversification strategy, forms of tourism that portray “a strong identity of a perfect island destination” were proposed in the TTMP (MTCA, 2007c, p. 50). As such, Eco Tourism Resorts, Health Resorts, Luxury Islands, Floating Resorts, Budget Resorts, Live-aboard, Luxury Yachts and Training Resorts were identified as potential diversifications. All marketing communications for these products are proposed to be “designed to retain the unique image and brand of the Maldives” (ibid). While tourism has helped upgrade the general standard of living, Yahya et al. (2005) believe that the concentration of tourism development close to the capital Male’ has contributed to creating income disparities between Male’ and the other atolls. The proposition of the TTMP to promote community-based tourism was aimed at increasing the benefits of tourism to local communities as well as being an avenue for promoting culture and protecting heritage. While there is a high degree of economic dependence on the natural environment through tourism, as Dowling (2000) warned, “environmental problems faced by Maldives ... are threatening the sustainability of the industry” (p. 253). A major issue is solid waste disposal, the methods for which are incineration or dumping into the sea. With the annual average number of tourist arrivals exceeding that of the total population (MTCA, 2007b) and all requirements for tourist industry catered for by imports, including “thousands of tonnes of meat, vegetables and diesel oil every year”, the amount of waste produced is “unsustainable” (Ramesh, 2009). From the resorts alone, 16.5 kg of waste per visitor is produced every week (Dowling, 2000). The Maldive islands are low and flat, with elevations less than two metres above sea level. Thus, these islands are extremely vulnerable to elevated sea levels caused by climate change. Domroes (2001) pointed out that the environmental volatility of the Maldives archipelago is camouflaged by the detrimental impacts of tourism. Already the Maldives suffers from inundation and shoreline erosion, which are believed to be consequences of global warming and greenhouse gas emission (Gayoom, 1998). A dire 78
prospect repeatedly proclaimed by environmentalists is that low-lying small islands such as the “Maldives archipelago will most likely disappear under the ocean” (Conrady & Bakan, 2008, p. 32). However, more recently, it has been announced that the question of Maldives going under the sea is overstated, because it has been established that islands can adjust to environmental changes such as rising sea levels and increased global temperatures (MSNBC, 2009). Global warming threatens coral reefs – the key attraction of the Maldives – as these natural attractions are sensitive to increases in temperatures (Conrady & Bakan, 2008). The massive coral bleaching that occurred during 1998 as an impact from El Niño is an example (Wilhelmsson, 2002). A large portion of the coral in Maldives reefs bleached and died during that period (Edwards, Clark, Zahir, Rajasuriya, Naseer & Rubens, 2001). As Domroes cautioned: “Tourism therefore hangs in the balance, its sustainability depends on how the environment is protected” (p. 135). 4.7 Tourist arrival trends As Figure 4.6 shows, the main reasons that tourists come to the Maldives are for leisure, honeymoon and diving. The majority of tourists (53%) seek leisure and relaxation, but with its strong appeal as a romantic destination, the ‘honeymooner’s’ category (30%) is also significant. The underwater beauty of the islands also attracts divers; they make up 15% of all visitors. Tourist arrivals to the Maldives have been increasing steadily at an average of 9% per annum over the last ten years, except for the dramatic decline in arrivals during the year 2005 due to the December 2004 Asian tsunami. The tsunami caused the closure of a number of resorts and tourist arrivals declined by 35.9% in 2005. The Maldives sustained significant economic losses from the tsunami due to the economy’s heavy reliance on tourism. However, Maldives’ tourism has shown remarkable recovery after the tsunami: in 2006 the annual growth rate in tourist arrivals rose to 52.3%, with nearly 602,000 visitors. The annual average occupancy rate has been 75.2% from 2002 to 2006 (MTCA, 2007b). 79
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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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local culture, built heritage, and
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Although the above inherent charact
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ituals and leisure (Tannahill, 2002
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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
Page 73 and 74: were doing doctoral research that w
Page 75 and 76: was a British protectorate from 188
Page 77 and 78: Figure 4. 2 Population growth rate
Page 79 and 80: 4.3 Economy The Republic of Maldive
Page 81 and 82: 4.4 Agriculture Agriculture plays o
Page 83 and 84: population was badly affected by th
Page 85 and 86: enefits of tourism among all the at
Page 87: As tourism became established in th
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
Page 99 and 100: CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
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
Page 111 and 112: The description indicates that food
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
Page 131 and 132: CHAPTER SIX: DEVELOPING LINKS BETWE
Page 133 and 134: Table 6. 3 Number of respondents th
Page 135 and 136: ight quality of products from these
Page 137 and 138: 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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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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