Guesthouses in the Maldives: Towards Community-Based Tourism

The Guesthouses sector in the Maldives is a rapidly growing sector which gives visitors a cheaper alternative for mid to low market segments. The permission to operate Guesthouses in the inhabited islands of Maldives was granted in 2009. These accommodations mostly provided only lodging facilities for the visitors although some are connected with FandB outlets. The sector accounts for 16% of the of the total bed capacity in the Maldives. This research proves that there are implications in proceeding with the Guesthouse businesses in the local islands. One negative impact is socio-cultural. Maldivians have been used to living in small island communities undisturbed from foreigners and for this reason, many locals in the island communities think that hosting foreigners year-round destroys their unique way of life, and hence they do not encourage the rapid progress of Guesthouse businesses. For this reason, the integration of local communities with Guesthouse tourism is not an easy endeavor. Even though this form of tourism is supported by the Maldivian government, it was found that many locals still have reservations on integrating with the tourists due to the socio-cultural differences. The findings of this research led the author to conclude that Community Based Tourism can be a solution if effectively implemented.