RAISING AWARENESS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN THE MALDIVES

Raising awareness about environmental issues seems to be on everyone ‘s agenda these days. But we all need to understand that this is not a short term project that needs a year or two focus only to fall by the way side when a new trend emerges.

But how do we all keep focused and ensure our efforts are not in vain?

At Secret Paradise we educate our guests in ways that encourage them to support local hotel and guest house programs. Our tour guides are our ambassadors, they lead by example every day in and out of work. For myself having worked and managed teams of over 200 people I have plenty of experience in how to continue to motivate and re-focus my team on our mission to make long lasting environmental change. These topics need to be spoken about on a regular basis, new initiatives need to be implemented and the existing initiatives need to be boosted every once in a while to bring it back to focus.

For example, in 2018 we launched our #strawwarmv initiative where local guest house owners and business operators were encouraged to replace the use of plastic straws in their business with other alternatives. We were delighted with the positive response we received from our local island partners, people all over were posting their photos online and tagging us using #strawwarmv. With our partner guest house owners fully committed to working with us to make sustainable changes we have challenged ourselves to look for additional ways we can work in partnership with properties to make changes.

This year we are taking our sustainable initiatives to the next level by introducing water coolers into a number of  our local guest houses encouraging our guests to re-fill their water instead of buying new bottles each day. This is something that is being introduced worldwide including in many popular coffee shops offering a small discount if the customer brings in their own travel mugs. It’s simple; it really doesn’t take that much effort but it will make such a huge positive impact on our environment not just in the Maldives but worldwide if we all make these small changes.

Working with local island guest house partners means that we also support a sustainable local community. You can image that with many islands as small as 1-2 square kilometres there is only so much employment available for local people. Many of them over the years have left their families to work in resorts but with the introduction of mindful tourism it means families have a choice and don’t have to live apart from one another because job opportunities are now available for them locally. You may wonder what do we mean by mindful tourism? Well many countries around the world have adapted to cater for the needs of tourists, this often means losing their local culture and traditions. At Secret Paradise we are determined to help maintain Maldivian traditions and local island culture by allowing our guests to be exposed to them through local island tours and engagement with locals. It benefits our guests greatly as they leave with a greater understanding of the Maldives and are also welcomed as family into the island homes, having the opportunity to learn how to cook a local meal and even dine alongside a local family. These amazing feasts are not to be missed! We’ve even had guests attend local birthday parties and weddings!

Because we employ only local island tour guides it opens a new channel of communication between visiting tourists and local island people. They are keen to learn about their island visitors as our guests are to learn about their host’s local island life! This intrigue often results in islanders inviting guests and our tour guide into their homes, sharing stories and history of  each others cultures. Where else do you get to experience something so unique, educational and inspiring? For me it is essential that these traditions are kept alive and that the local islands never lose their culture and uniqueness. After all we are visitors to their country and their environment.

In our next blog we will continue to showcase initiatives we have and are implementing at Secret Paradise in order to create a more sustainable environment in the Maldives.

To see our responsibility tourism policies click here