We do love us some Maldives action, and their policy of having only one resort on each island does make it a heavenly kind of place. But you all love the Maldives too, and they're looking to expand.
So how do they do it? According to the Deputy Director of the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, Abdulla Naim, it's all too easy:
There are currently 89 resorts in operation in the 300,000 population Maldives on a one-resort-per-island policy. We want to increase the number of resorts but don't want to change this guideline so the only thing we can do is develop more islands ... The government has gazetted 50 uninhabited islands for tourism development in the near future. The plan calls for the addition of 7000 beds in the next three to four years. This would increase the accommodation inventory to 27,000 rooms by 2011.
At some stage of course they'll have to run out of uninhabited-but-habitable islands: although there are about 1192 islands to choose from (unless global warming covers up too many). Apart from the well-known snorkelling and scuba diving possibilities, the Maldives are also trying to push surfing as a must-do, which should fill up another dozen or two islands.
Source: Hotel Chatter
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