Promoting Gender Equality in Tourism Employment, Women in Maldives’ Tourism
Tuesday 16th of June 2020
Promoting Gender Equality in Tourism Employment, Women in Maldives’ Tourism
According to UNWTO, the majority of people employed in tourism worldwide are women, but women are concentrated in the lowest paid, lowest skilled sectors of the industry and carry out a large amount of unpaid work in family tourism businesses.
The UNWTO is committed to enhancing the positive impact of tourism development on women’s lives, and, in so doing, contributing to the achievement of the Fifth Sustainable Development Goal – "achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls". It is believed that ‘women are not well represented in the highest levels of employment and management of the tourism industry.’
However, there are several females in the industry, who proves how important they are in tourism of Maldives. Here are some of the people to gain inspiration from:
Mariya Shareef, Resort Manager of Summer Island Maldives
With the appointment of Resort Manager of Summer Island Maldives a few years back, Mariya become one of the few Maldivian women to hold position of Resort Manager at a Maldives’ resort. Mariya started her career as a kitchen assistant and worked her way to working with international brands and becoming the Resort Manager at Summer Island Maldives. She was also the Business Development and Marketing Manager for Kaimoo where she helped with re-development of Summer Island Maldives, and also the Marketing and PR manager at Lily Hotels for four years.
Shidha Hussain, Reservations Manager at W Maldives
Shidha entered the hospitality industry when she joined the COCO Collection part of Sunland Hotels Pvt LTd in 2010 as a Cluster Reservation Agent. Due to her experiences and expertise, she landed a role with Marriott International as a Complex Reservations Agent for Sheraton and W Maldives in 2016, managing two properties in the Maldives. After 2 years, she launched the onsite reservations team based on property at W Maldives as the Assistant Reservations Manager and is currently performing the role of Reservations Manager.
Fathimath Shaazleen, Resort manager at Soneva Jani
Shaaz began her career as a telephone operator after she passed her diploma in hospitality with distinction. In 2000, she joined Soneva Fushi in guest relations, two years later, she was promoted to Friday Supervisor. She left Soneva in 2004, and rejoined in 2009 at Soneva Kiri as Rooms Division Manager. After moving back to the Maldives, she was offered the position of Resort Manager at Soneva Jani, where she hopes to inspire more women and work towards becoming the first female GM in the Maldives.
Shafiyya Steinhilber, Associate Director of Sales at Hotel Jen
In 2002, Shafiyya joined Conrad Rangali Island as a restaurant hostess as soon as she finished her school education. From Hilton she moved to Taj Exotica as an F&B supervisor then to Four Seasons as to work in guest relations. She then moved to joined Holiday Inn as Reservations Supervisor and in 2010, as the hotel was taken over by Shangri-La, she landed with her first managerial position as Assistant Reservations Manager. After her experiences, she became Hotel Jen’s youngest associate director.