Tourism’s effect on a local crisis

As tourists, it is easy to forget about those who work behind the scenes to create incredible travel experiences for us.

The exceptional food, immaculate beaches and seamless service become part of the backdrop, rather than standing out as notable moments of appreciation for the people that create these experiences.

In countries like the Maldives, where approximately 50 per cent of the nation’s revenue is generated by tourism, the staff behind the scenes are the pillar of the tourism sector.

However, education and skill gaps have led to a disparity in who is benefiting from the industry, with the local population losing out to expatriates in the workforce.

This is leaving many Maldivians without a purpose, isolated on remote islands without economic security.

It has reached a crisis point in recent years, where rising youth unemployment and a lack of tertiary pathways are creating a drug epidemic in concentrated urban centres such as capital city Male.

So, local resorts are making changes. By finding new ways to encourage localisation of the tourism sector, they are not only reducing their reliance on an externally sourced workforce, they are also breaking the cycles of youth isolation and substance dependency.

Current standards

It makes sense to me, after interacting with numerous resort staff, that the Maldives is a desirable place for expatriate hospitality and tourism employees.

I am told staff members are treated well, with provision of leave entitlements and return flights that cover annual trips to their home countries and opportunities for career advancements.

They receive accommodation, food, and wages that they joke about having nowhere to spend.

Making up 60 per cent of the workforce, with an increase to 70 per cent predicted in 2027 as more resort islands are established, Maldivian tourism would crumble without them.

The reality of resorts hiring externally to the local population is the level of training and education that staff from bigger nations have access to. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia provide a majority of the international workforce and offer diverse educational institutions that focus on hospitality, tourism, hotel management and culinary programs, many of these pathways starting from school age.

It is the easy way out for Maldivian tourism businesses to blame the skill gap of the local population and avoid the burden of fostering educational initiatives on home turf, but it is creating a dangerous gap of unemployment for an entire generation who is missing out on the opportunities and economic benefits of a rapidly expanding tourism sector.

Future proofing

Thankfully, there are businesses that see the importance of focusing on localising the industry. The Maldivian government has encouraged this with staffing quotas that require human resources departments to be entirely Maldivian, as well as 60 per cent of senior management positions to be filled by locals.

At SO/ Maldives they aim to flip the industry’s current 60/40 standard to be majority Maldivian through a focus on local youth education.

“To raise them in their knowledge and give them confirmation of how this all works, we can do that,” director of brand Sudheer Mekkattu tells me.

With calls from experts and local unions for the government to mandate early education of the tourism industry in order to provide youth with a path to employment, initiatives like this one are essential to breaking the cycle.

“We support the schools; they can come here and see how a resort works and how that is beneficial for them,” Sudheer continues. “Then, we do a training program. We call them for an internship where they are given an opportunity for at least two to three months, they see if they are interested and we go for it.”

Through paving educational paths that encourage bilingual proficiency, real-world experience and career counselling, resorts are able to give a sense of purpose to a generation who have been excluded from their own nation’s largest employment market while committing to nurturing a cultural shift away from external dependencies.

+ Ella George was in Maldives as a guest of SO/ Maldives. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.

+ We first met Ella through the travel writing course at University of Notre Dame, studying under Mignon Shardlow. We are pleased to bring her work to our readers.