The Farce of Sustainable Luxury in the Maldives
The conscious traveler takes a deep breath in and out and marvels at the lavish villas in the water, cryotherapy and localized fat reductions at the wellness center, and meals with ingredients flown from the farthest corners of the world. All is possible at Soneva Fushi, a Maldivian resort well renowned as a leader in sustainable tourism. 1.2km away lies Eydhafushi, a local island. Concerns of space constraints, lack of adequate healthcare services, unfinished roads, and destroyed shoreline protection stand in stark contrast to the resort. The astonishing polarity is a fact of life in the Maldives. In this polarity, one finds the absurdity of “sustainable luxury”. One needs to only remove the cloak to find inside what the tourism industry tries so hard to conceal; environmental degradation, unbridled greed, political corruption, and lies. Three pillars: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability dominate the discourse on sustainability. Yet the Maldivian luxury tourism industry has not given the social, economic and political dimensions of sustainability the attention it deserves. It is within these realms the flaws of sustainable resort tourism are revealed.
A Brief History of ‘Sustainable Tourism’ in the Maldives
“Sustainable development” itself is a deeply contested term amongst academics, politicians, and activists. Its origins and first definition lie in the report published in 1987 titled “Our Common Future”, also known as the Brundtland report.
The most common definitions are often variations of the following:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of ‘needs,’ in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs” (Brundtland Commission Report, 1987)
By 1987, the Maldives had already been experimenting with a particularly unique form of tourism, now called the “one island one resort” concept. The model is a form of extreme enclave tourism, where the hotel brand has almost full control over the island it is located in and thus owns and controls all the services and infrastructure required to operate an island. An inherent property of this model is that locals are barred access to the island unless they are visiting as ‘internal tourists’. It is within this model we find the first example of ‘sustainable tourism’ in the Maldives. In the same year the Brundtland report was published, the heir to a business empire Sonu Shivdasani and entrepreneur Eva Malmström visited the Maldives and fell in love with the turquoise isles. With their immense capital, the couple was able to lease an island called Kunfunadhoo in Baa atoll. The couple renamed the island after themselves to “Soneva Fushi” and opened it as a resort in 1995. Soneva Fushi was a pioneer in what they called “barefoot luxury”, combining ultra-luxury with ecological awareness. The resort promoted a “no news, no shoes” philosophy, encouraging the guests to disconnect from the outside world. The idea of blending ultra-luxury with sustainability is familiar to us now, but at the time, it was truly a revolutionary concept. Since then, Soneva Fushi has continued to pioneer sustainable luxury by growing organic gardens, providing filtered plastic-free water bottles, beach cleanups, marine science research and so on. Through its NGO Soneva Namoona (meaning exemplary in the local language Dhivehi), they have run programmes dedicated to empowering zero-waste communities and inspiring a love for the ocean. Various resorts in the Maldives eventually followed suit and the Maldives is now often considered one of the best destinations for sustainable luxury tourism. It seems Sonu Shivdasani, who self-proclaimed himself as “Guardian of Culture” and called his workers ‘hosts’ instead of ‘employees’ (though that hasn’t stopped employees from filing cases of noncompliance against the employment law), truly pioneered a new path for the Maldives tourism industry.
Taking off the Mask
What is sustainable tourism? At its essence, at least in the form it is currently presented in the Maldives, is really a ‘brand characteristic’. A unique and sophisticated form of greenwashing. A digestible and simple ethos captured in quips such as “No news, no shoes”. It capitalizes on the wealthy tourists desire to appear moral; so that the elites who vacation at Soneva Fushi are “good” human beings. The facade exists to soothe whatever quarrels or guilt that are associated with their lavish lifestyle. This is the niche that sustainable tourism in the Maldives is filling.
Perhaps the argument is too cynical. These properties do indeed provide funding for environmental conservation measures. The argument of “but the tourism industry provides so and so, and therefore the people must be grateful” is at the core of a complicated relationship that the Maldives has built with the tourism industry. In part because it is true. The revenue from the tourism industry has built the Maldives we know today. It has funded our schools, hospitals, housing projects, roads and airports. Directly or indirectly, a significant portion of the workforce is also employed in or adjacent to the tourism industry. It is the Maldives’ economic lifeline. As the most significant lifeline, the tourism industry wields immense influence and power. It forces the people to accept what is provided. If one is critical or demands more, the industry can employ an arsenal of threats. Often mild, but in some cases harsh, including death threats. Thus in a country such as the Maldives that is at the absolute frontlines of the climate crisis; must we rely upon the goodwill of a few individual people or hotel brands to implement environmental measures at their whim? Should the future of an entire country and its millennia-old ecosystems rely on what a hotel tycoon thinks is important or not? Or what is trending amongst consumers? One must never forget that no matter what, a resort is ultimately a profit-making endeavor and its operations will, first and foremost, be directed towards generating profit. The sustainable tourism brands in the Maldives filled a niche and profitable segment of the industry in the case that this niche is no longer profitable, they will jump ship because the logic of capitalism entails that if they refuse to do so, they will collapse.
An overlooked feature of these resort islands is immense revenue leakages, that is the revenue that flows outside of the Maldives into international hands.A investigative report recently estimated that in the last 15 years, nearly USD 12.989 billion of revenue from the tourism industry was taken out of the Maldives. Stopping the immense leakage of revenue and redirecting even a drop of it towards environmental protection measures and conservation efforts undertaken by decision-makers, activists, and researchers at the community level is perhaps one of the most impactful actions a state can currently make instead of depending on the goodwill of hotel brands.
In the fog of unenforced environmental protection measures and leeway, luxury resorts operate wantonly with little regard to social customs or environmental measures. On December 18, 2023, employees (sorry, hosts) of Soneva Fushi and tourists illegally entered a protected lagoon, violated regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and refused to leave. The EPA slapped a fine of around $26,000. A few months prior, a fine of around $1300 was slapped on a company called Bunny Holdings for launching a coral planting program at Soneva Fushi’s lagoon without the required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).In another incident, staff and the general manager of Gili Lankanfushi was caught supposedly trying to destroy a sandbank seemingly because they did not want their affluent clientele seeing local Maldivians enjoying the sandbank.
Such incidents may feel like little mistakes. It happens, perhaps. Far more sinister is when tycoons such as Sonu Shivdasani were implicated in an investigation by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) which found that Soneva obtained an island called Medhufaru and its surroundings via a no-bid contract in 2014. This was part of the largest corruption scandal in the Maldives. Others implicated tycoons included billionaire Harry Jayawardena owner of Aitken Spence which operates the Adaaran resort brands, co-founder of Kuredu Resort Lars Petre, and a whole catalogue of local and international players. Each resort, no doubt, boasts a ‘sustainability’ offering. While the inadequacy of several ‘sustainability’ offerings such as coral plantings and beach cleanups are well scrutinized, the sheer power and influence of these luxury resort establishments in the country is overlooked in the ‘sustainability’ discourse. Especially when we must take into consideration the three pillars of sustainability; environment, economic, and social. We are now in a scenario where large-scale reclamation projects, often for tourism projects, are wrecking havoc on the Maldivian environment. The irony of burying and suffocating living coral reefs and later offering ‘coral planting’ programmes is not lost yet this absurdity is playing out at a seemingly unstoppable pace in the Maldives. One may sense a theme of ad hominem fallacy playing out in this writing, that I am pointing out individual cases that do not represent the ‘sustainable & luxury” tourism industry in the Maldives as a whole. These individual cases are really besides the main point, they are only there to support the inherent argument that an industry that relies on absolute excess cannot be sustainable and most importantly, a profit-making endeavor must not wield such grand influence in the Maldives especially when it pertains to addressing an existential crisis such as the climate crisis.
Once the Fog Clears
What do we find once the fog clears? All across the world, a fog is clearing up on how the elites and billionaire class operate. A small group of people who have for far too long amassed unbelievable wealth through the exploitation of billions upon billions of human and nonhuman lives. A recent news report found that a former president of the Maldives Mohamed Waheed was pitching luxury resort investment deals to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Thus adding one more addition to the sheer number of backhand land deals and grabs that have occurred in the fog of Maldivian resort politics. It reveals that at its core, the issues of sustainable tourism are more simplistic than they appear. Powerful and wealthy people need a way to distinguish their product from their competitors, the sustainability angle is a convenient and profitable way to capitalize on it.
In doing so, they have conveniently ignored the complex and messy webs of destruction, exploitation and inequality that lay at the heart of the climate crisis. Such messaging may have worked before but they now represent a facade of a dying world. Communities across the world are waking up to realize that a heavy boot has been hovering on them for far too long, and whether it needs polishing or is adorned with flowers and incense, a boot is a boot. And we will have no more of it. The elite class plays a game with rules that are foreign to the working people and the guise of ‘sustainable’ tourism is perhaps yet another toolkit in their arsenal to exploit land and people, reap its profits, and indulge in the strange hobbies of the ultra-rich.
Is an alternative thus impossible? Is the mere existence of luxury ‘sustainable’ resorts flawed? Not necessarily. The solutions to the flaws of this industry are simple to write and increasingly complicated to play out in the world due to the vast obstacles that stand in the way. We need the redistribution of wealth hoarded by the elites for all Maldivians, to let go of the inherent lie that luxurious consumption can be sustainable, implement environmental measures and actually enforce them for the sake of protecting the environment itself instead of tourism PR, and give the local communities significantly more power in decision-making.
It will be far more demanding than just taking off one's shoes and turning off the news.
Ijunad Junaid is a Maldivian environmental storyteller and steward for the Earth. Ijunad’s work explores our fragile relationship with the Earth and climate justice. Based on principles of deep ecology, Ijunad brings out the ‘more-than-human’ world in his writings and inspires to spark a sense of love, longing and reverence for the Earth and all the billions of life she carries. As a Political Science graduate with a minor in Biodiversity from Leiden University, Ijunad’s work explores politics, power, and the climate crisis as intertwined threads.