Narrative study: Travelers’ perception of Maldives ‘one island – one resort’ setting

Chu, Angela

Abstract

Maldives is a well-known leisure travel destination with the rich natural resources and the uniqueness of topology. The country is formed by 1,190 small islands which are connected by 26 atolls. This "one island – one resort" type of resort distinctively developed by the Maldives for the purpose of environmental protection and becomes an iconic resort setting. Most of the previous studies are mainly focusing on Maldives' environment sustainability, the mass tourism impact on the environment, and the global warming impact on this low elevation of the island, therefore the author would like to focus the paper on the traveler's perception on Maldives as a destination. As tourism is their primary source of economic growth and development, understanding the traveler's perspectives will help the Maldives Ministry of Tourism to improve their policy settings and its sustainable competitive advantage. It is a practical review of traveler's perception on the Maldives' ‘one island – one resort' layout and understands how it differential from the other similar destinations such as Bali, Thailand, Fiji, Hawaii and etc…
This qualitative research paper has adopted the narrative approach by interviewing the participants through an open-end question. The participants must have traveled to Maldives before and stayed at the ‘one island – one resort' settings. The benefits of email interview allow the participants to have enough time to think and openly describe their experience and feelings toward Maldives, particularly on this ‘isolate' setting. Thirteen out of eighteen respondents had been replied. From these rich and descriptive data, content analysis is used to study the intended message and discover the missing elements of its distinctive. Majority of the participants have positive holistic feelings and experience. They are all pleased with the service; and felt exclusive and a sense of belonging due to the high privacy of settings.
Some have mixed feeling that they may feel restricted if they stay longer, and commented the essentials to select a resort with nice beach, different food variety and selections of activities. One participant felt disappointed because of the missing of local culture in comparing to other resort destination and believed it is over-rated by the media. Overall, the result is very similar to the Maldives Visitor Surveys (MVS) conducted by the Maldives government to investigate the tourist satisfaction. The purpose of the visit is for relaxation or a get-away. The tourists are very satisfied with the hotel service and their dining experience. The author recommended the Maldives Ministry of Travel to encourage the investors to add more local element at the resorts, such as performing Bodu Beru or other
2 local entertainments to increase the travelers’ authenticity experience. This may help Maldives to sustain their competitive advantages to other similar destinations. Corresponding to the comment of over-rated by the social media, a further study may conduct. As well as the pricing in comparing to the other similar destinations as a few respondents’ comments that it is expensive travel to Maldives.

Citation

Chu, A. (2018, February). Narrative study: Travelers’ perception of Maldives ‘one island – one resort’ setting. Paper presented at 83rd TOSOK International Tourism Conference, Incheon, South Korea

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 83rd TOSOK International Tourism Conference
• Start Date: Feb 12, 2018
• End Date: Feb 13, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 1, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 2, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Maldives; One Island – One Resort; Culture; Narrative Approach; Content Analysis