According to Kulhuduhuffushi.com work on the construction of Radisson Plaza Resort Maldives, Naagoshi is 35% complete and is expected to open in march 2013. The resort will have 281 land villas and 99 over-water villas and will operated by Three K International Private Limited. The island is in Northern Haa Dhaalu Atoll which is 45 minutes by sea plane from Hulhule International Airport.
The tiny island of Vaavu Thinadhoo is a tourism success story untold. This is an island of about 30 people (official census 55 as per isles.gov.mv) and two guest houses. The guests live freely among locals and there is mutual love and respect on both sides. Most of the tourists that comes to the island are repeat guests who would not need any invitation to join dinner or lunch in any house. The island provides guest with a real living adventurous version of holiday typical resorts do not provide to their guests. However the resort is for the traveller type of guests who would love fishing, snorkelling, playing chess with local elders, playing soccer with locals etc….
The idea of tourism in the island occurred to a local of the island and his Italian wife ( the island medic), both of them are well loved and respected by guests and islanders alike. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to create a fantastic tourism product from scratch and to keep up with guests every expectations continuously day in day out. Bravo to Ellisa and Mongi for a job well done and we wish them success.
Sun.mv reports that a tourist at Club Med Kanifinolhu Resort has gone missing yesterday. He was last seen swimming in the shallows of the island with another tourist. See the full story here…
To prevent such sad happenings, we believe resorts shall do more such as to employ life guards on the beach etc..Read our previous essay on this issue here.. and on a Tripadvisor thread here..
The government has taken the expected u turn on spa closure ban policy taking fire across the board. We applaud the correct decision and hope everybody involved learned a lesson. For the record we maintain that the spa ban was politically motivated and was a knee jerk reaction by the government following the 23rd December big demo. The opposition did not call or ask to ban all spas across the country and the big demo was not organized by radicals or extremists. Rather it was popular sentiment reacting against an unresponsive political climate.
It is our hope that political parties involved will refrain from inflaming political tensions and will not take actions which will damage the tourism product of the country.
An interesting cartoon by our staff cartoon artist
Resort workers work hard during December and January in full occupancy, with Christmas and new year celebrations, while govt workers lazily while the time. However resort workers do not even get an off-day for the happy new year. The government worker gets January 1 as a public holiday which is very unfair.
Most HR’s make a point of being ungenerous to staff when it comes to benefits to staff because it is generally perceived that the more aggressive and uncaring one is, the more easier he or she climbs another rung in the corporate ladder. This medieval mentality still persists in the best resorts in Maldives and it is no use to point out inconsistencies like this to HR robots.
For now it seems only the force of law or threat of protests will prompt the uncaring employers to think that something is amiss in their interpretation of the public holiday list. To be prompted to be generous is one thing, being generous is another.
If the stakes were lower, this could be hilarious; here are the newest twists in the story about the order to close spas
What is not funny in these political maneuvering is
However it is our assessment that these suits and counter suits are just political equivalent of ruling MDP and opposition coalition pulling each others legs, because ultimately neither party will be able to take responsibility for destroying the tourism product.
Maldives Resort Workers 