Maldives’ Tourism Wealth: Dollars Flow In, Locals Lose Out

MALE’, Maldives — In the Maldives, a nation of 500,000 scattered across coral atolls, tourism drives the economy, generating a quarter of the country’s GDP in U.S. dollars. Few small nations match this foreign currency inflow, fueled by luxury resorts that attract millions annually. Yet, for local workers who sustain this industry, the benefits are dwindling. While foreign investors enjoy robust protections, the “resort boys and girls” — rigorously trained hospitality staff — face job insecurity and declining wages, raising questions about who truly reaps the rewards of this dollar-driven prosperity.

The tourism sector, largely controlled by foreign-owned resorts, operates under regulations that safeguard investors’ profits. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration has mandated that tourism businesses exchange a portion of their dollar earnings with the central bank to stabilize reserves, a policy welcomed by many. In 2024, the Maldives Monetary Authority tightened this requirement, bolstering government coffers but offering little relief to locals like Mode, a resort worker, Addu boy, who supports his family abroad to avoid Male’s high rents and fund his children’s international educations, including a son in university.

Mode, like many “resort boys,” a local term for highly trained hospitality workers, faces growing challenges. Despite regular training from top-tier programs, these workers are increasingly replaced by cheaper imported labor. “We bring in the dollars, but we’re being pushed out,” Mode said, speaking anonymously to protect his job. The lack of a dedicated tourism ministry, with oversight now under an environment minister also acting as regulator, has left workers’ concerns unaddressed.

President Muizzu’s administration appears focused elsewhere. Taking office in 2023, he pledged to protect national sovereignty, even breaking from his inauguration script to salute the flag with fervor. But his early vow to expel Indian technical staff operating search-and-rescue platforms proved unfounded, much like the recent GEMCE scam unsettling the nation. While the government swiftly enacts policies to secure dollars, it has been slow to defend the rights of locals who enable this wealth.

Image sourced from a video posted on Aslu’s social media page.

“Tourism isn’t the vibrant sector it once was,” said a Maldivian resort manager, who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals from regulators and industry insiders. “It’s slipping, not in arrivals, but in the care needed to keep this golden goose thriving.”

Adding to workers’ woes, some businesses are shifting from dollar-based pay. Trans Maldivian Airways, which operates the world’s largest seaplane fleet and employs over 1,000 workers, including pilots and technical staff, announced in June that it would pay salaries in Maldivian rufiyaa, citing government mandates to deposit earnings in local banks. Employees report that salaries will reflect official bank rates, not the black market’s 19.50 rufiyaa per dollar, costing workers about 400 rufiyaa per dollar earned. The company has yet to issue a statement.

The dollar’s black-market premium highlights broader economic strains. Traders, struggling to obtain dollars for imports, face rates far above official exchanges, hampering their ability to stock goods. Some resorts have also shifted salaries and service charges to rufiyaa while earning revenue in dollars, further squeezing workers’ incomes.

Economists warn that the Maldives’ reliance on tourism dollars, while a strength, exposes vulnerabilities. Few small nations match its foreign currency inflow, but without policies prioritizing local workers, the wealth risks bypassing those who sustain it.

Despite the Maldives’ global reputation as a premier destination, local resort staff, the men and women powering the industry, are increasingly marginalized, while foreign investors and their imported managers claim the lion’s share of profits. “There’s room for reform,” said AN, a U.S.-trained Maldivian hospitality expert currently on a break from a resort job after facing racial discrimination. “The government acts quickly to protect dollar reserves, but where’s that urgency for its people?”

For Mode and his peers, the question persists: When will President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration, so effective at securing foreign exchange, prioritize the locals who drive the nation’s economic engine? Until then, resort workers, trained to deliver world-class hospitality, await their fair share of the prosperity they help create.

President Muizzu must prioritize returning the Maldives’ economic benefits to its people, not merely as a political slogan often heard in lengthy speeches at national events. Those addresses, heavy on rhetoric but light on substance, rarely address the core tourism sector that drives the economy. Without meaningful reforms, locals like Mode and other resort workers will continue to wait for their share of the prosperity they help create.

Note: This is one article in a series by Etruth, spotlighting resort boys and girls to address their challenges and those of the industry.