The Minor Hotel Group has expanded internationally since 2005 and its first overseas investment was in the Maldives. We started with a joint venture with a Maldivian partner, and this has become one of the best business partnerships we could ever have imagined.
The major businesses in Maldives are tuna fishing and tourism. The population is only 300,000 people, compared with more than 1 million foreign visitors per year. The tiny country has a great school system covering the first 12 years of education and thereafter, it is more efficient for the Maldivian government to provide scholarships for overseas study rather than support a domestic university system.
Constructing hotels in the Maldives remains a big barrier to the entry of newcomers because the country has no construction contractors. Therefore, a hotel owner has to manage the entire construction job. We had to hire our own labour force, import building materials from overseas and manage the whole project ourselves like a contractor. The Minor Group has now built four hotels in the Maldives, and I can still say it is far from being an easy task.
Operating a hotel in the Maldives also presents unique challenges.
Since most hotels are situated on individual islands, all hotel staff have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Having staff that stay on the island all day and night means that on one hand you can get the best productivity out of each staff member, but on the other hand you have to take care of every aspect of their lives. All living facilities for the staff must be well thought out, including mini supermarkets and recreation facilities such as a football fields.
The ratio of Maldivian staff to foreign staff should be 1:1, but with only 300,000 Maldivians in the whole country, this is another challenge. Maldivian staff can provide all services to hotel guests, but for religious reasons, cannot serve alcohol. Most of the non-Maldivian staff are recruited from Sri Lanka, India and, of course, Thailand.
The Maldives government leases out its islands for terms between a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 35, and the first "head lease" must belong to a Maldivian. One hotel for one island is typical, and unlike here in Thailand, if guests want to dine in another hotel, they must get permission from that hotel beforehand.
The Maldives has a pure natural beauty that is hard to find anywhere else in the world, and I used to tell my friends that every picture taken in the Maldives looks spectacular even if you are a terrible photographer. The sand is sometimes so sparkling that it hurts the eyes and the crystal-clear ocean offers magnificent shades of blue, from dark blue all the way to turquoise.
The Minor Group currently has three hotels in the Maldives, and our fourth, the Anantara Kihavah - our most luxurious hotel in Maldives - will be completed by the end of this year.
The Maldives that I know and love is the Maldives that you must visit, at least once in your lifetime.
Pratana Mongkolkul is group chief financial officer of Minor International. She may be contacted at pratana_ma@minornet.com. Follow her articles in Hi! Managers every fourth Wednesday of the month.