The Maldives was largely terra incognita for tourists until the early seventies. Strewn across the equator in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives archipelago possesses an exceptionally unique geography as a small island country. Nature has fragmented the archipelago into 1,190 tiny islands that occupy a mere one per cent of its 90,000 sq km territory. Only 185 islands are home to its 300,000 population, while the other islands are used entirely for economic purposes of which tourism and agriculture are the most dominant. The emergence of tourism in 1972 transformed the economy of the Maldives, moving rapidly from the dependence on the fisheries sector to the tourism sector. Just in three and a half decades, the industry has become the main source of income and livelihood of the people of the Maldives. Tourism is also the country’s biggest foreign currency earner and the single largest contributor to the GDP. Today, there are 89 resorts in the Maldives with a bed capacity of over 17,000, providing world class facilities for tourists whose annual arrival figure exceeds 600,000.
Location: Indian Ocean, about 500 Km from Sri Lanka and India.
Political Status: Independent Republic
Population: 250,000 (approx.)
Religion: Islam
Geography: Coral islands grouped into atolls with fringing reefs
Climate: Tropical, Average temp. 30 deg. C
Access: Scheduled and charter flights from Europe, Middle East, Asia, US and S. Africa
Visa: 30-day tourist visa on arrival
Customs: No illicit drugs, pornography, firearms, alcohol, dangerous animals
People and Language
The Maldivians are not a race. The average Maldivian would never look into his neighbor’s face to see if he resembled someone from Kinshasa, Kabul or Kuala Lumpur. If you tried to persuade him to do so anyway, he would probably smile and consider the exercise a total waste of time.
If you do stop to consider, and want to find out more, a rather interesting case study begins to emerge.
One of the most interesting facets of the Maldives it its language – Dhivehi.
The languages spoken by our immediate neighbors in the Indian subcontinent are Dravidian, the major languages in this region being Tamil, Malayalam, Kannado and Telugu. Singhalese, spoken by the Singhalese community in Sri Lanka, and Dhivehi are Sanskrit-based.
If you care to listen to the ordinary Dhivehi spoken on the streets today, you will still find that it is much closer linguistically to Hindi, Urdu and Singhalese than the Dravidian tongues. It is however, not a pidgin or a creole. It is a language with its own grammar, its own culture and even its own script.
BEST TIME TO VISIT
Generally, the year is divided into two monsoon periods: the northeast monsoon or Iruvai lasts from December to March, which are the drier months; the southwest monsoon or Hulhangu lasts from April to November, which are wetter, with more storms and occasional strong winds. Daytime temperatures are about 28°C throughout the year. The humidity is slightly lower in the dry season but on most days, there is a cool sea breeze.
HOW TO REACH BY AIR - Almost all visitors to the Maldives arrive by air. Malé International Airport, situated in Hulhule Island, is just over a kilometer or about ten minutes by boat from Malé, the capital. There are regular flights to Colombo (Sri Lanka), Thiruvananthapuram (southwest India), Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), as well as many chartered flights from European centers.
The tourist resort islands have their own transfer boats to carry their clients. Visitors with confirmed reservations are normally met on arrival at the airport and transferred by boat, helicopter or seaplane to the resort island of their choice. Transport and communication services provided for tourists are generally of a high standard. There is no regular inter-island transportation system between inhabited islands. The ad hoc transportation system is serviced mainly by the local boats, which average a speed of about 8 miles per hour. A larger number of dhonis ply between the Malé International Airport and Malé route as ferries. Dhonis and even modern speedboats are also available for hire. Air Maldives, the national carrier, operates regular flights to the domestic airports at Hanimaadhoo, Kadhdhoo, Kaadedhdhoo and Gan.
BY WATER - Cruising among the islands may be an exciting alternative. Yachts and yacht-dhonis with bunk beds or private cabins are available for hire. These boats can accommodate between eight to twenty passengers on cruises that sail for ten to fifteen days. Some of the larger vessels have scuba diving and windsurfing facilities with qualified instructors on board. Food prepared by the crew using the day's fresh catch of fish may be modest, but a tourist is never too far to stop for a sumptuous meal or a drink. On a cruise, dining under a clear sky in the Maldives can be an experience in itself. With the equator running through the Maldives, it is an astronomer's dream too.
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