TOURISM and hospitality workers in the Maldives have been urged to protest against a Supreme Court ruling, a move that could disrupt operations at resorts. Several countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia have also issued travel warnings for the islands.
Mauroof Zakir, secretary general of the Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM), told TTG Asia e-Daily that the association had asked its members to protest against the court order to indefinitely suspend the second round of presidential polls.
Zakir said: “The workers will only protest during off-duty hours and not disrupt operations.”
However, he conceded that “if the situation worsens, the protests could (eventually) affect resorts”. The Maldives’ tourism industry is made up of 25,000 workers, half of which are foreigners.
Calls on tourism workers to strike were first fielded by main opposition candidate and former president, Mohamed Nasheed, which has caused concern among the present government.
Minister of tourism, arts and culture, Ahmed Adeeb, said: “(The protests) will affect the entire industry. Politics should not be brought into tourism. Tourism workers, I believe, won’t abide by the call but if they do there will be a big backlash (in the industry).”
But United Nations World Tourism Organization secretary-general, Taleb Rifai, said travellers across the world today are acutely aware of political, social and economic issues and that they are part of life.
He was present at the World Tourism Day celebration held at Kurumba Maldives resort last Friday, and said the global tourism body had “insisted on having the event here at a time when the people of the Maldives are deciding their future”.
