Refrigeración con agua de mar refrigerada

For the tour operators, the greatest challenge during the tsunami was the breakdown of the communication systems. All participants indicated that they were not able to communicate with the resorts to check on the well-being of their tourists. They had no information to provide to families and friends of the tourists. They could not activate their crisis communication plans and give reassuring messages in the absence of proper information. The media sources from the respective tourist generating markets were constantly contacting them throughout the 2-4 days of communication breakdown. No information was available during this period until telecommunications were restored. As one participant stated:

“Collapse of the national telecommunications system was the main issue we faced during the tsunami. We weren’t able to contact the resorts to find out about the condition of our clients. We had a lot of pressure from families and relatives of the clients to know about the safety of their loved ones and we simply had no information.” (PS-T2)

All participants indicated that they worked supportively and gave assistance to the authorities and the businesses in a situation when there was much panic among tourists and employees. While those resorts which were closer to the Male’ International Airport evacuated their guests, the airport itself was not prepared to handle a major catastrophe. There were no relief arrangements for the evacuated clients and many had to sleep and rest on the floor, even without a blanket. Resorts in distant areas faced transportation issues in the absence of appropriate transport. Dhonis, essentially used for off-resort guest activities, such as excursions and island-hopping, had to be used for evacuation, even though they were not suitable for an evacuation in uncertain weather conditions. Available modes of transport such as speedboats, usually able to carry 15 passengers, were damaged in most resorts. Most tourists left the resorts and the safari boats, and headed towards the airport. While these were the on-ground realities for tour operators, they faced numerous other challenges. One participant reported:

“The biggest challenge was logistics since the islands were scattered and to get ferries with appropriate numbers. Our largest resort had 430 guests who wanted to leave. We had our own fleet of speed boats and we couldn’t get any from the country as all were occupied. We even helped defense force to reach that atoll.” (PS-R7)

155 satellite radio and we were able to communicate through helping them. We provided our boats to take people. We didn’t have first aid services developed to that extent however, we sent food and water.” (PS-R7)

As discussed in section 7.2, different businesses reacted in different ways depending on the severity of the damage and the circumstances during the emergency and the intermediate phase. Resorts, in particular, had to wait for a long time to get mobile phone coverage and had to travel to nearby inhabited islands to get a signal to communicate with their Head Offices in Male’ and other places abroad. Those resorts which received severe damage were evacuated by the Coast Guard, with the help of air transport providers, while a Pakistani Naval Vessel assisted in evacuating guests from severely affected resorts.

Soon after the tsunami, 26 incoming charter flights were cancelled. Most of the guests panicked and almost everyone went home. All participants from the resorts, travel agencies and safari boats interviewed stated that almost 50% of their arriving guests cancelled their reservations, resulting in a 50% decrease in revenue for the period. All participants from the tourism industry indicated that the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) and the Maldivian Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) worked closely with them during the response and recovery stages. They disseminated information on the status of the tourists, employees, and resorts to all their respective stakeholders.

The MOT and MTPB updated the respective governments of source markets and travel agents on the situation. Businesses focused on facilitating a smooth departure for all tourists who wished to leave their resorts and safari vessels. Information was disseminated to all concerned by the MOT and the MTPB that even though the Maldives was hit by the tsunami, Maldives’ tourist industry was open for ‘business as usual’, but with a reduced bed capacity. According to all of the participants, the authorities’ actions assisted in returning to normalcy. By the end of the 1st week of January, the travel trade at large was convinced that the Maldives tourism industry was in operation. However, consumer perception of the Maldives was greatly ‘tarnished’ by the continuous negative media coverage of the disaster. In coordination with the private sector, the Ministry of Tourism and the MTPB encouraged foreign governments who had initially imposed ‘travel bans’ to the Maldives to relax the

bans. As a result, from 29th _{December 2004, travel bans were slowly lifted by the respective}

foreign offices of major markets. However, the continuous media coverage of the ‘Indian Ocean’ tsunami, which unfortunately did not exclude the Maldives, appeared to have

156 promotional campaign’ was needed.

All participants from the private sector agreed that the government and industry stakeholders collaborated in the recovery program, instituted by the MOT and the MTPB, along with the industry association: Maldives Association for Tourism Industries (MATI). The private sector collaborated and provided assistance to the government sector. Participant noted that:

“We had numerous meetings with MTPB and MOT to understand the immediate, medium and long-term needs following the tsunami. We identified things that we could do to assist the recovery. We assisted the government in terms of their marketing needs.” (PS-N1)

Another participant reported:

“The resort came back to normal operations within two weeks with no huge business loss. Basically we didn’t receive much damage. The decline in arrivals picked up within two months. Our biggest markets were British, French and Italian. We recovered because of these markets that didn’t stop sending their tourists. Media has played a part. Government efforts to change the perception helped.”(PS-R8)

MATI, representing the private sector tourism industry, worked along with the MOT, MTPB and other regional tourism associations like PATA. According to the MATI, they assessed the situation in the tourism industry soon after establishment of telephone communication on the

27th _{December 2004. Officially MATI used information from the MTPB website for press}

releases to concerned industry stakeholders. MATI communicated with PATA Headquarters, assuring stakeholders that while some Maldivian resorts were not operational at the time, most of them were back to normal and looking forward to hosting New Year vacations. Similarly, MATI went on international media channels, such as the BBC, and invited their media teams to visit the Maldives to see for themselves. At the same time, PATA press releases promoted island tourism in the Maldives; the environment profile of islands, floods and negligibility of risks such as electrical accidents, water contamination, diseases and epidemics unlike other destinations. As one participant explained:

“We worked very closely with the tour operators and airlines to seek ways to reviving the industry. We worked with international media and the local media and through internet as well, putting on a lot of pictures showing the daily lives of the tourists in the resorts.” (PS- N1)

157 organized a visit for a 29 member Italian Press delegation followed by meetings with key airlines operating to Maldives. At the same time, they consulted with the MOT and the MTPB to discuss the necessary steps to revive the Asian markets to the Maldives and highlighted the importance of providing accurate information needed by tour operators, water safety, food safety, utilities and other environmental damage due to the tsunami. According to one interviewee, MATI assisted in media visits which were intended to assess and report the situation to their countries: the Maldives secured support from airlines to provide seats for media personnel and resorts to provide complimentary tours. Similarly, MATI coordinated various crisis marketing proposals that emphasized increasing visitation, public awareness, brand identification and revenue. Likewise, MATI succeeded in lobbying the government to

revert to the Maldives signature slogan “Maldives; The Sunny Side of Life” and support to

revive Asian markets.

According to the MATI respondent, as part of the Tourism Recovery Project, launched by MATI following the tsunami, the organization hired marketing consultant Professor Jack Carlsen to assess the impact of the tsunami on the Maldives tourism industry with a view to securing funding for an intensive marketing campaign to revive the industry. The final report was a tourism market recovery strategy for the Maldives, which integrated short, medium and long-term marketing strategies.