Steps in the Road to Recovery of Maldives by Sonu Shivdasani

Thursday 4th of June 2020

Steps in the Road to Recovery of Maldives by Sonu Shivdasani

On 3rd June, National Federation of Maldivian Employers (NFME) wrapped up the first episode of Webinar Series "Tailoring a New Reality - Employer's Dialogue" focused on “Safe Re-opening and Reviving of Maldives Travel and Tourism”. The expert panelists were Mr. Sonu Shivdasani, Mr. Abdulla Ghiyas Riyaz, Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed, Mr. Mohamed Khaleel and Mr. Murad Hassan.

The Federation’s President, Mr. Mohamed Ali Janah who facilitates the webinar series, had presented the question to CEO of Soneva, Sonu Shivdasani, regarding ‘when an average resort in the Maldives will be able to recover from the losses and return to business’. This is considering that the Asian Development Bank estimates in the best scenario that tourism revenue will fall USD98 million and in worst case, USD 300 million, while also considering borders open within upcoming two months.

“The first step to the road of recovery has been completed with the launch of the safe tourism guideline by the government, which states a clear date of when the borders will open,” said Sonu as he proceeded to suggest the other steps that are also essential for the recovery of tourism industry in the Maldives.

2) Demand from clients

One thing that I’ve noticed from being close to sales in the organization and being regularly in touch with travel partners and sales officers is that theres constant amount of demand, showing that there are clients wanting to travel. In Soneva’s 3 properties- Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani in Maldives and Soneva Kiri in Thailand- the first 18 days of May had 90 leads while between 18th and 25th May there were also 90 leads. Last weekend, there were 30 leads, a record for a week even in pre-COVID.

3) Ability to Travel

The ability to travel has two aspects: flights and the government. As days pass, I believe that there are more airlines resuming flights. I believe the Middle East airlines are to resume around 7th of July. The organizations in tourism industry of the Maldives should work with partners in other markets and the government should encourage and support airlines by providing subsidies and make it competitive. It is important to make Male` City an attractive place to land and this will take efforts. Airlines should be encouraged to accelerate their restart dates.

Secondly, for people to be able to travel in countries, a lot of effort is needed from the government of Maldives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and counterparts in main markets- China, India, Russia, Germany, UK and Italy. India is expected to open its borders sooner due to the enhanced relationship between the Maldives and India. However, it is a concern when China will do so since it is the largest market for Maldives tourism. It’s not going to be easy but I have faith in the government.

So how long will it take for the resorts in Maldives to recover? Although the first step has been completed, theres still a long road left. I believe that’s 40 days until early July. However, if we are proactive in the following 30 days, tourism will rebound. And regarding Asian Development Bank’s estimate, I believe that the loss will be between USD 90 million and USD 300 million. It depends very much on the tourism industry and the efforts being done. It’s all within our hands.