Ahmed Shareef

The plugin is super fast and works on the fly. All loading and processing are done in actual plugin server, but everything is shown on your website without leaving to another page. This is the reason it works so fast and you get the advantage of not slowing down your website. You can install and uninstall at any time, it wont affect your data. I think it is awesome for personal blogs and especially for travel websites.

Installation:

1. Download the Maldives Resort Finder tool and unzip the package.

2. Copy the folder to wordpress plugins directory.

3. Activate from dashboard. You are done!

Also, it can be easily integrated to websites, just have to add few lines and it will work perfectly. Drop me a message, I will give you the code for websites.

There has always remained a rumour that some of the European managers are not properly qualified and experienced to lead service team. Employees often complain that they are not fairly treated, they are not given equal chances and some of the expatriate managers favour whom they like, and those manager perform their job related tasks as entertainment. This may be true to some extent. But, definitely not all expat managers are so much a burden to the hotel and tourism industry of Maldives.

I met Stefan Huemer when he was working at Kuredu, he is an Australian as I remember. It has been about 2 years since I met him and I could still recall some of the things he said. He said there are two ways to become a manager; one is by education and another is by experience. Then he pointed out him self as on the first path, a colleague of us on the second and my self on the first as well. We went on talking about the industry and various challenges. what I felt whatever he said really made sense, truly agreeable. I was very impressed of his openness and great deal of experience in the hotel industry. He was a little different from some of the other expats I met, his positiveness and fairness was really remarkable. He was interested in managing a large scale and busy operation. Kuredu runs normally at about full occupancy throughout the year and consists of 330 rooms. That’s 40 waiters at main restaurant alone.

After realising his knowledge and experience  in addition to his leaderships skills  I was still questioning my self about the reason he was working at a three star hotel. I did realise importance of handing a such a large scale operation as well. Finally, Stefan Huemer has now become the General Manager of two Jumeirah properties in Maldives. With him Jumeirah Resorts are not only finest luxury islands but also some of the best places to work in Maldives. Stefan, Welcome back to Maldives!

Which industry of Maldives have the most number of educated people? If that’s IT, do we have a big IT industry in Maldives? Even if its your passion I think it is important to compare it with the prospects. Despite how good you are at cooking, you cannot make meat ball soup if you dont have the right ingredients, or you have the ingredients but not the know how of cooking. Either case you gained no benefit out what you had.

I know a lot people doing higher education in IT and lot more have interest in that field. If you want just an easy degree then IT could be one, it would give you an allowance if you were lucky enough to get a job from the government. Nowadays its not the harvesting season anymore, the government is chopping down the needless employees and IT could easily become a target.

The government can easily centralise the IT department of different offices and save some cost. At the same time keeping some multi-skilled people in every office could patch up the gap. So, the ordinary IT people seems to be very replaceable.

So, where can the IT guys can go? In India there are lot of IT people working from home on freelance basis, they work over the web and serve international market. Despite the opportunities, so far I have not heard of any Maldivian doing freelance tech jobs over the web. If you think Indians can afford to do those jobs as they dont have to earn so much for living, they actually earn a lot in general.

I found a copy of Symbolic Wedding Regulation on President’s Office website. It was not on Tourism Ministry’s website. This made me think that the regulation was made my President’s Office, instead of the Tourism Ministry. This regulation was a result of an indecent Renewal of Vows ceremony took place at Vilu Reef Beach & Spa Resort.

Now the case has been partially settled as president have invited the couple to visit Maldives, of cause the effects will live long locally and abroad.

It’s saddening that lessons have not been fully learnt from the killer incident. Tourism is fragile, the officials at President Office could have obtained opinion from tourism experts and experienced personnel in the field. If they did they would have known that there are other routes leading to similar outcomes. Hence, instead of a single patch on the leaking hole the Maldives tourism industry needs a proactive thinking.

Instead of subjecting the regulation no a specific activity performed by some of the employees it needs to be focused on behaviour and practices of employees in general. The verbal communication with tourists, non-verbal communication and basic hygiene standards are important to have “minimum requirements” set by the government.

The resorts I have been to practice a lot of hygiene principles. The importance of reinforcing employees to adhere basic hygiene practices and basic code of conduct serve more to the legal purpose. If an employee intentionally breaches hygiene codes then the government authorities and resort can easily take necessary actions against that particular employee.

Maldives definitely needs the GST or the tourism tax bill. I have not come across anyone single person, organisation or company that opposes this statement. MATI, MATATO and industry personnel did express concerns; none of them rejected the bill or opposed its general context. Their expressions were only on some specific terms which were uncertain and unconstructive in nature.

Hence, I can simply say that the whole tourism industry agrees to:

*. pay tax on everything they sell in tourism industry, including rooms, excursions, food and beverage etc.

*. percentage of tax to be 3.5 on Sales.

Now, what are the concerns all about? I have stated major concern in my previous post. When I wrote that post, I did not read the actual bill as it was not available for download, I simply referred to other sources. But, today I had a look on the actual bill and noticed more concerns. I’m not going list down all, here’s the funky part.

The GST bill levies tax on services rendered by travel agencies, this includes local companies operating in Maldives as well foreign companies operating elsewhere. Many travel agency businesses are very much virtual, physical agency can exist anywhere in the world and provide travel services in other places without their physical presence. Based on this fact, the bill demands tax from companies that are operating in and out of of Maldives. But, how would the government collect tax from companies based abroad? What if they did not pay? How can the government impose sanctions or penalise?

I have an extremely busy schedule this week. But, I just couldn’t resist making a bold remark about the massive chaos Maldives is heading into unknowingly. I would like to quickly highlight the following concerns.

The meanings and definitions are not provided in an accurate manner which leads to introversion, especially relating the amount of tax. In some places it is unclear whether the tax is levied on sale, gross profit or net profit.

In the bill the amount of tax is based on land size, smaller islands have higher tax in proportion. But this is not the only factor which determines income level. Other important factors include: distance from airport, natural beauty of the island, lagoon, reef, proximity to dive spots and its quality, local and uninhibited island near around the resort. All these additional factors are left unaddressed so as to establish a common tax throughout the industry.

Until now every resort was leased under a contact between the government and resort owner. These contacts vary hugely in terms and conditions, and are made on one-to-one basis. Depending on terms and conditions some islands where highly demanded while others were rejected by investors. Since investors were to seek maximum profit, this fluctuation in demand actually reflected the profitability; some were highly profitable and others were not. In this ground, a common law may not be suitable. On the other hand, implementing a tourism bill which drastically changes majors terms and conditions basically means termination of contact. It is highly likely the investor confidence will be highly affected.

Tourism is very risky industry. It is the biggest industry in the world; lots of investment opportunities are available throughout the world and it is highly competitive. A small miscalculation could lead to devastation. It is extremely risky to achieve everything in one go. Even if proper planned was gone through, such changes disperse fear and uncertainty.

These are not all yet, but, time limitations force me conclude this post.

Don’t be surprised! Not only you, it seems many people don’t know about this. Today’s youth have a world of opportunities. The government and political parties encourage you to take the leadership posts. By the time you finish high school you get to sit in parliament. Isn’t it cool?  Young smart men and women are driving the country. But, so far it’s been rare to find a teenager in a top job?

You finish high school at 18, you were fed and taken care by your parents. You were a great spender for 18 years and you did not have to earn a single coin on your own. Always you felt mom and dad would take care of everything, your concerns were playing and entertaining yourself. At this time life remains a mystery and you are so excited. All of a sudden, an election approaches. More excitement?  To whom would you vote? You don’t  know any of the candidates, everyone is putting up billboards and distributing flyers. You confidently compares candidate’s profile, listen their speeches, read the flyers and find out their objectives and time frames to achieve those objects. Then you choose a smart candidate with a good educational background, vision and mission are also great compared to others, and takes a shorter period to have the much needed services in the island. Excellent!

What have you done? You just finished high school and you have no worldly experience as you have never been working or it was too short to experience the heat of real world. You were far too young to undertake the responsibilities of a life. Yet, you made a strategic decision on the country. Being young you had a tendency to give preference to a young person who looked smarter. You did not realise being young also meant lesser worldly experience. You read from the flyers that he had worked in several organisations but you didn’t bother to find out how successful those organisations were and it was the first time you heard those organisations. His job title was some manager, you had no idea what the job functions and responsibilities could be. You didn’t know the role of MPs, hence, you couldn’t compare it with the candidates’ profile. The time frames he gave was shorter but you had no idea how the processes could be if you were to do on your own. You believed his speeches because he repeated mentioned how much the island was neglected from the basic services and he was energetic in his speech, but you did not understand how easy it is to blame. You did not understand the young person will seek more money to invest in his private life.

Maldives being comprised of young population, the MPs largely represents today’s youth and that is how teenager gets into parliament.

The newly passed tourism tax bill imposes a sales of tax of 3.5% on all services rendered by travel agencies. Additionally the same percentage is imposed on services provided in the resorts, a total of staggering 7% Sales Tax from tourists’ pocket.

In sale of holiday packes well established agencies keep a margin of 10% inclusive of profit and all expenditure, this is for an average hotel. Gross profit margin for high end packages fall much below 10% and growing companies normally earn just enough to meet their overheads.

Out of the 10% margin about 2% goes for bank charges, if payment is processed online an additional 5% incurs in direct cost and only 3% remains to meet overhead costs. Normally the local agencies dont offer online payment processing and saves that 5% for monthly expenditure. For high end holiday packages the percentage of margin falls far below 10% as prices normally exceed $500 a night. So, the travel agencies dont manage to earn an unusual markup in high end packages.

According to a news report on Haveeru, it is unclear whether resorts have to pay this tax for direct bookings. If they dont have to pay then the travel agency business will no longer exiting by end of the year. Direct bookings normally does not exceed 20%, remaining 80% comes of different travel agencies and tour operators. Hence, without travel agencies the resorts will not survive.

The tax bill seems to be constructed in a complicated manner and is not 100% confirmable whether this tax is applicable on sale of holiday packages, but it does mention the sales tax on services offered by travel agencies. Please refer Haveeru.

Suppose you were in the management team of Kurumba Maldives, what would you say to tourists who enquire about the recent strike? How did they manage this strike? Can the strike be an advantage for marketing?

Recently Maldives local news reported of a strike being taken place at Kurumba Maldives, a 5 star resort that is famous for its long history as first resort to born in Maldives. The resort claimed all tourists had fled away into other resorts and overseas. But, the Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) said not a single tourist went back home and all were upgraded (or transferred) to other resorts. In a previous post, I have mentioned of the likelihood that company would have facilitated the tourists’ move to other resorts.

Universal Resorts operates 4 resorts in Maldives, a bed capacity of 1350. In addition, the company is highly influential to whole tourism industry, government and even to parliament.  Hence, a relocation of entire tourist population into different resorts would not be too difficult for a company of this scale.

What was the prime objective of relocating the tourists instead of facing the employees to end the strike? It was very clear that company wanted a permanent cure rather than temporary fix. On other hand, this saved the tourists holiday from being spoiled. Not only that, it also reveal that Universal Resorts was highly dependable compared to other resort operators in Maldives. Tourists may be reluctant to dig out the consequences as they have plenty of choices. But, travel agencies and tour operators who partner with resort would understand and consider the ability of strikes management as a factor for sending their tourists.

There are several techniques used to tackle strikes, but in this post I would not go for its details.

This was the first time Kurumba Maldives had a strike in 33 years and first time the tourists got opportunity to transfer to other resorts (most likely with additional benefits to compensate the incident). Therefore, even if the word strike is yucky to hear as a tourist, the logic reveals more dependability in terms of how it was managed. If you happen to step in a strike and had a fantastic holiday then you are one lucky man on earth. Most of the time strikes are unforeseen and it can happen any where in the world, but every where you cant these smart fixes on the spot.

I am an undergraduate student studying hospitality management in an island in Malaysia. I did my higher diploma in 2006 and was working ever since. I held a managerial position at a Universal Resort for about 3 years. For me it is a great concern to hear strike in tourism industry, even when I am not working it still matters to hear.

In Maldives the resorts are isolated and separated from inhabited islands by sea. The employees don’t have access to resources elsewhere other than what is provided in resort. Hence, resort operators have to undertake the entire responsibility of ensuring comfort of their employees. During my employment I always believed that food was the topmost factor in ensuring employee comfort at resort. I also considered excellence in that as basic need. But, the Chief Accountant reports financial information to your superiors and always there is a budget. You as the manager, are responsible to keep costs under budget and if you exceed it becomes your failure. What can you possibly do? In all resorts in Maldives we have different nationalities in workforce. Food has to suit them all, not only for Maldivians. Costs go even higher?

Most of the employees were Maldivians and expats also like many of the Maldivian dishes. Based on this, the menu I had was Maldivian cuisine with some extra dishes to suit each nationality. The items greatly varied each day over the week. I believed even with decent meals, if it were to have every day then it wouldn’t take months to get employees fed up. So, the weekly menu kept changing in every 3 months.

By culture the Maldivians are generally very hygienic. I applied to this factor to save some costs. The staff restaurant was kept clean and tidy, plates and cutleries were spot-checked continuously along with taste of dishes. Maldivians tend to avoid too much of oil. A combination of these factors greatly improved the staff dining experience.

Ramazan was always a special month for everyone. The staff menu always boasted with huge variety of food and drinks (budget also forgives you in this month). Duty shifts were altered to ease fasting, but maintained full operation. At breakfast minimal staff were scheduled on duty and switched back and forth after breakfast. Those staff on duty got meals from nearest guest outlet and menu was never limited. I observed the staff get quite motivated even while tired, sometimes more staff were found on duty than scheduled. This eased the congestion as rest gathered for breakfast.

The resort had lot of palm trees. Every second day or third I plucked those coconuts which otherwise would cut off was waste. Coconut juice is my favourite. So, we made coconut juice for all staff and some days Gabulhi Satani was prepared. The staff liked these home-style dishes than industrial cooking. It also represented the care given to each of the dishes.

So far, I have been writing about staff meals, that itself represents its importance in my consideration. It can be argued whether people are working to earn a living or to earn income, earn a living doesn’t necessarily mean salary as the only motivator. When people sign their employment contract the salary is stated. Hence, I believe it is baseless to go for a strike due to lower salary. While on other hand, service charge has to go to employees (except 1% of admin charges at maximum) by law. Therefore, it is important to process financial information in a transparent manner and keep it available. Again, it would be baseless if a strike is formed due to lesser amount in service charge.

When employee joins the team he is agreeing for the pay mentioned in the contract. But, as human wants are unlimited, the value of appreciation decreases over the years and tend to expect higher income later on. Then people demand for pay rise, clever people sharpen their skills and earn more tips or find higher-paying jobs elsewhere. The pay rise can be a request and cannot proceed beyond that unless due to a solid reason such as an increase in general income level over the industry. On other hand, discrimination and inequality can be reasons for a strike, but solutions must be sought in alternative ways before proceeding to a strike.

Salary scale varies resort by resort, so is the job requirements of employees. Staff varies in qualification, experience, skills and performance. In some previous incidents at other resorts, I observed that most of the staff who demanded pay-rise actually could not perform upto the level in high-pay resorts, and that was the reason these employees couldnt move out to high-pay places. This leaves no other choice for these people than striking baselessly.

Strikes have devastating effects to the economy, it can even lead to pay cuts as businesses lose revenue. Having worked with tourists, it is also important to think about these impacts in tourist’s perspective. Some tourists save their income for decades and spend it for their honeymoon vacation, if they land a destination in strike it would be absolutely horrific. In this particular incident at Kurumba Maldives, news reports say that tourists have moved out of the island. This seemed like resort offered them other resorts to stay in order to minimize the impact to tourists.

Based on limited information sources, basically the media, I conclude this strike as an immature practice initiated in an irresponsible manner, though some factors remain really addressable which could have reached a solution if proceeded step by step before jumping into a strike.