In sale of holiday packes well established agencies keep a margin of 10% inclusive of profit and all expenditure, this is for an average hotel. Gross profit margin for high end packages fall much below 10% and growing companies normally earn just enough to meet their overheads.

Out of the 10% margin about 2% goes for bank charges, if payment is processed online an additional 5% incurs in direct cost and only 3% remains to meet overhead costs. Normally the local agencies dont offer online payment processing and saves that 5% for monthly expenditure. For high end holiday packages the percentage of margin falls far below 10% as prices normally exceed $500 a night. So, the travel agencies dont manage to earn an unusual markup in high end packages.

According to a news report on Haveeru, it is unclear whether resorts have to pay this tax for direct bookings. If they dont have to pay then the travel agency business will no longer exiting by end of the year. Direct bookings normally does not exceed 20%, remaining 80% comes of different travel agencies and tour operators. Hence, without travel agencies the resorts will not survive.

The tax bill seems to be constructed in a complicated manner and is not 100% confirmable whether this tax is applicable on sale of holiday packages, but it does mention the sales tax on services offered by travel agencies. Please refer Haveeru.

Recently Maldives local news reported of a strike being taken place at Kurumba Maldives, a 5 star resort that is famous for its long history as first resort to born in Maldives. The resort claimed all tourists had fled away into other resorts and overseas. But, the Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) said not a single tourist went back home and all were upgraded (or transferred) to other resorts. In a previous post, I have mentioned of the likelihood that company would have facilitated the tourists’ move to other resorts.

Universal Resorts operates 4 resorts in Maldives, a bed capacity of 1350. In addition, the company is highly influential to whole tourism industry, government and even to parliament.  Hence, a relocation of entire tourist population into different resorts would not be too difficult for a company of this scale.

What was the prime objective of relocating the tourists instead of facing the employees to end the strike? It was very clear that company wanted a permanent cure rather than temporary fix. On other hand, this saved the tourists holiday from being spoiled. Not only that, it also reveal that Universal Resorts was highly dependable compared to other resort operators in Maldives. Tourists may be reluctant to dig out the consequences as they have plenty of choices. But, travel agencies and tour operators who partner with resort would understand and consider the ability of strikes management as a factor for sending their tourists.

There are several techniques used to tackle strikes, but in this post I would not go for its details.

This was the first time Kurumba Maldives had a strike in 33 years and first time the tourists got opportunity to transfer to other resorts (most likely with additional benefits to compensate the incident). Therefore, even if the word strike is yucky to hear as a tourist, the logic reveals more dependability in terms of how it was managed. If you happen to step in a strike and had a fantastic holiday then you are one lucky man on earth. Most of the time strikes are unforeseen and it can happen any where in the world, but every where you cant these smart fixes on the spot.

In Maldives the resorts are isolated and separated from inhabited islands by sea. The employees don’t have access to resources elsewhere other than what is provided in resort. Hence, resort operators have to undertake the entire responsibility of ensuring comfort of their employees. During my employment I always believed that food was the topmost factor in ensuring employee comfort at resort. I also considered excellence in that as basic need. But, the Chief Accountant reports financial information to your superiors and always there is a budget. You as the manager, are responsible to keep costs under budget and if you exceed it becomes your failure. What can you possibly do? In all resorts in Maldives we have different nationalities in workforce. Food has to suit them all, not only for Maldivians. Costs go even higher?

Most of the employees were Maldivians and expats also like many of the Maldivian dishes. Based on this, the menu I had was Maldivian cuisine with some extra dishes to suit each nationality. The items greatly varied each day over the week. I believed even with decent meals, if it were to have every day then it wouldn’t take months to get employees fed up. So, the weekly menu kept changing in every 3 months.

By culture the Maldivians are generally very hygienic. I applied to this factor to save some costs. The staff restaurant was kept clean and tidy, plates and cutleries were spot-checked continuously along with taste of dishes. Maldivians tend to avoid too much of oil. A combination of these factors greatly improved the staff dining experience.

Ramazan was always a special month for everyone. The staff menu always boasted with huge variety of food and drinks (budget also forgives you in this month). Duty shifts were altered to ease fasting, but maintained full operation. At breakfast minimal staff were scheduled on duty and switched back and forth after breakfast. Those staff on duty got meals from nearest guest outlet and menu was never limited. I observed the staff get quite motivated even while tired, sometimes more staff were found on duty than scheduled. This eased the congestion as rest gathered for breakfast.

The resort had lot of palm trees. Every second day or third I plucked those coconuts which otherwise would cut off was waste. Coconut juice is my favourite. So, we made coconut juice for all staff and some days Gabulhi Satani was prepared. The staff liked these home-style dishes than industrial cooking. It also represented the care given to each of the dishes.

So far, I have been writing about staff meals, that itself represents its importance in my consideration. It can be argued whether people are working to earn a living or to earn income, earn a living doesn’t necessarily mean salary as the only motivator. When people sign their employment contract the salary is stated. Hence, I believe it is baseless to go for a strike due to lower salary. While on other hand, service charge has to go to employees (except 1% of admin charges at maximum) by law. Therefore, it is important to process financial information in a transparent manner and keep it available. Again, it would be baseless if a strike is formed due to lesser amount in service charge.

When employee joins the team he is agreeing for the pay mentioned in the contract. But, as human wants are unlimited, the value of appreciation decreases over the years and tend to expect higher income later on. Then people demand for pay rise, clever people sharpen their skills and earn more tips or find higher-paying jobs elsewhere. The pay rise can be a request and cannot proceed beyond that unless due to a solid reason such as an increase in general income level over the industry. On other hand, discrimination and inequality can be reasons for a strike, but solutions must be sought in alternative ways before proceeding to a strike.

Salary scale varies resort by resort, so is the job requirements of employees. Staff varies in qualification, experience, skills and performance. In some previous incidents at other resorts, I observed that most of the staff who demanded pay-rise actually could not perform upto the level in high-pay resorts, and that was the reason these employees couldnt move out to high-pay places. This leaves no other choice for these people than striking baselessly.

Strikes have devastating effects to the economy, it can even lead to pay cuts as businesses lose revenue. Having worked with tourists, it is also important to think about these impacts in tourist’s perspective. Some tourists save their income for decades and spend it for their honeymoon vacation, if they land a destination in strike it would be absolutely horrific. In this particular incident at Kurumba Maldives, news reports say that tourists have moved out of the island. This seemed like resort offered them other resorts to stay in order to minimize the impact to tourists.

Based on limited information sources, basically the media, I conclude this strike as an immature practice initiated in an irresponsible manner, though some factors remain really addressable which could have reached a solution if proceeded step by step before jumping into a strike.

Personnel Management has the idea that people have right to proper treatment as dignified human beings while at work, they are effective as employees when their job-related personal needs are met. Whereas human resources management is of the idea that management of workforce is much the same way as any other aspect of business management and an integral part of the organization which cannot be separated out for specialists to handle. In addition to the right of proper treatment, people will be effective when their personal career and competence needs are met within a context of effective management and a mutually respectful working relationship. The specialist role is directed towards getting employment of right number and skills at the right price, supporting other managers in their people management and contributing to major strategic changes in business. In human resources management, mediation and reconciliation of needs associated with managing people is being undertaken by line managers, managers of all sorts are increasing their own skills in relating people as part of tendency to become more general that specialized in their departmental responsibilities. Where as in personnel management it is done by a separate department and line managers focus mainly on departmental functions.

Personnel management can include administrative tasks that are both traditional and routine. It can be described as reactive, providing a response to demands and concerns as they are presented. By contrast, human resources involve ongoing strategies to manage and develop an organization’s workforce. It is proactive, as it involves the continuous development of functions and policies for the purposes of improving a company’s workforce. Personnel management is often considered an independent function of an organization. Human resource management, on the other hand, tends to be an integral part of overall company function. Personnel management is typically the sole responsibility of an organization’s personnel department. With human resources, all of an organization’s managers are often involved in some manner, and a chief goal may be to have managers of various departments develop the skills necessary to handle personnel-related tasks. As far as motivators are concerned, personnel management typically seeks to motivate employees with such things as compensation, bonuses, rewards, and the simplification of work responsibilities. Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. Human resources, on the other hand, are responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organization. From the personnel management point of view, employee satisfaction provides the motivation necessary to improve job performance. The opposite is true of human resources. Human resource management holds that improved performance leads to employee satisfaction. With human resources, work groups, effective strategies for meeting challenges, and job creativity are seen as the primary motivators. Personnel management is more often referred as traditional version of human resource management. It is a concept that can be conveniently related to the old model of organization, is bureaucratic in nature, with less flexibility, and higher degree of centralization and formalization, for example, adherence to rules and regulation. Human resources management, on the other hand, is compatible with the organic design of new organization. Such organizations have cross-functional and cross hierarchical teams. They are decentralized and flexible, with low formalization and somewhat looser control. The new look of human resources management focuses more on commitment than on mere compliance. With the high costs involved in employee selection and recruitment, companies are increasingly concerned with retaining employees. Generating employee commitment is an important consideration for large and small organizations. Commitment is one of the factors of human resources management policy for an effective organization. Some experts assert that there is no difference between human resources and personnel management. They state that the two terms can be used interchangeably, with no difference in meaning. In fact, the terms are often used interchangeably in help-wanted advertisements and job descriptions. For those who recognize a difference between personnel management and human resources, the difference can be described as philosophical. When a difference between personnel management and human resources management is recognized, human resources are described as much broader in scope than personnel management. Human resources is said to incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, while seeking to create and develop teams of workers for the benefit of the organization. The perspective of personnel management is that labour is treated as a tool which is replaceable, where as in human resources, as the term it self describes, employees are treated as a resources and an asset issued for benefit of the company. Human resources management is a distinct philosophy that aims at mutual interests, instead of the company being upper most. The size of workforce usually tends to be bigger in Personnel Management and not-so-important categories of jobs are only employed and recorded rather than integrating those with straight management. A primary goal of human resources is to enable employees to work to a maximum level of efficiency which could also lead to reduce the size of workforce, reducing labour and recruitment costs.

Both human resources management and personnel management are all about increasing efficiency and was a result of exploitation that the way employees are related affects their efficiency. The first to born was the personnel management which is preceded by human resources managed in the evolution of the subject. Though both approaches believe in the same basic fundamental fact, it differs in implementation and effectiveness. Personnel management is more administrative, reactive and tends on controlling employees though rules and code of conduct. The approach of human resource management is smarter, and is based on proactive strategies that lead employees to perform better through a mutually benefiting and respectful flexibility at work. Therefore, human resource management and personnel management are aimed at one basic principle but the degree of effectiveness seems higher in human resource management.

Now, I’m starting with my research proposal and I would like to base it to Maldives. I have some topics in mind and thought of sharing this with friends and other fellow bloggers. Anyone could give me a better idea or a comment on its effectiveness could lead me to a better idea.

Before I list down those topics, there are some factors that are taken into account in deciding a research topic.

- Importance to the country, people and the industry.

- Accessibility to the information / data, in order to conduct the research.

- If any other Maldivian conducted a search on that topic.

Now, here goes the research topics I’m thinking about.

- The next tourism trend in Maldives high-end market.

- How local population benefits from resorts in Maldives.

- Effectiveness of marketing Maldives tourism.

I’m open for all kinds of ideas and criticism as well (:D). Anyone who is working or have worked in tourism industry might have a different experience which you might think would be fascinating for a research. Good ideas can pop up in anyone’s mind, what you do for living doesnt matter, but what matters is whether drop it here or not.

If you were a student the news would be delightful to hear, especially if you were financing your studies on your own. As for bank managers, this might cause them cry out laud, at least for a while. Even though money is not lent for free as per the drafted bill, it has never been practiced in Maldives and there are solid reasons.

The legislation system in Maldives has been extremely unstable for the past few years, due to so many reasons one cannot list out, and for all these years the banks were not prohibited of issuing the so called student loan which is practiced in many developed countries around the globe. So, why has no bank started this loan and earned the interest?

Banks do business with cash; they buy and sell or exchange cash in different forms and means. As per my knowledge, so far the government has not enforced any bank to follow any form of loan scheme in Maldives, allowing the banks to practice free trade. May be this is one of the reasons that several overseas banks had applied for operating license in Maldives; free trade of banking has encouraged remarkably over the years.

When it comes to an enforced student loan scheme to be practiced by all banks operating in Maldives, banking may not become unprofitable even with unstable legislation and high records of criminology. But, when a respective Member of Parliament submits such a bill which does not balance the mechanism of free trade, in my opinion, Maldives may lose confidence by potential investors. Even if other Members of Parliament reject the bill, still the issue of instability remains bold in potential investors who are already withholding the planned projects just for lack of confidence.

Baseless bills submitted to the floor, even if they didn’t get passed, and even if the candidate didn’t get showered with support, it might shake up investors and certainty of instability would become more certain with every unfolding story as such.

Providing student loans are as important as providing free and fair banking in the country, or less than that. So, having initiated this issue in the parliament, the MP may deserve some credit, only if it does not exceed its negative inplications. So, now I’m stuck halfway through. Therefore, getting back to the topic, it might be more effective for the MP himself and for fellow Maldivians if the bill was drafted on a recognition system in exchange for student loan scheme.

Adamo is a high class ultra-thin laptop recently introduced by Dell. If you visit Adamo’s home page, you will be inspired by a series of these new styles. It has got the pride of being world’s thinnest laptop presently in the market. The glass screen and extra battery life on top of its finely done finishing makes it simply irresistible. You can read more specs from their website.

To me, the pictures are more attractive than it. Conceptual photography portrayed is superb, with a lot of similarity to high-end hotel photography techniques which I was going through a few years back. You may have already noticed some features.

Adamo is stylish, the woman walks in style, setting a feel of new presence. Adamo is thin, so is the woman in high heels. When she walks into a supermarket, would people stare at her? Just like the brand new Adamo in laptop market? When you saw the picture for the time, if you left it was not ordinary, would you go further and see what’s new?

Marriott standard for photography tends to avoid showing too much in a single photo as simplicity has greater impact.

The picture does not target much detail and hardly understand what she is carrying, and that’s how simple it is.

Chinese province of Suchian was hit by a deadly earthquake measured 8.0 magnitude on 12th May 2008. Thousands of people were killed and many were buried both alive and dead underneath building collapses as per reports. The tragedy capsized lives of the province with no hope for generations to come.

Suchian Tourism Bureau had recently announced development of a museum park with all building collapses as tourist attractions. Some news papers reported that demand for this tourism product was huge as per Chinese officials and it was difficult to avoid the public demand. Hoping visitors would pay due respect to the lives passed away, Chinese officials were initially to open places like schools, bridges and factories.

Now, do you wonder if a country like Maldives can overturn the tsunami debris into dark tourism? As for Chinese, it is not difficult to assume that they targeted for domestic tourism. The country’s population is big enough for a market, and proportion of population who suffered such disasters is very small. So, there is a huge chunk in the target market who might be interested to visit the museum. Comparing the same to Maldives, there seems no leverage in size of local population and no strength in the segment.

Though, I am not an expert marketer, comparing the scenario for both Suchians and Maldivians, the picture comes in two different colours. Even if Suchian citizens benefit out of the disaster, it may not be only impossible for Maldivians to benefit out of tsunami, but also lead to negative effects on already established beach holiday market. If you were a holidaymaker in Maldives and you saw tsunami debris, would it makes you come back again or would it make you fly back home quickly? Or just none?

If you are tired of reading the dark tourism, allow me to cook another dish with same meat!

Though I am not a basketball fan, it is well-known that basket players are usually very tall. Assuming you are not that tall, if you take some pills and manage to reach the height you desire, could it have adverse effects, just like dark tourism not being suitable for Maldives? The comparision has now taken shape of a principle?

My friend and I went to Dolphin Cafe for a drink. That day was so hot and evening was warm too. So, I wanted to go for something cold. My friend ordered an energy drink and I chose a Granini blackcurrant. It didn’t take too long to relax me in the breeze of open-air terrace. By then, I had only few sip left in the glass.

The empty glass with some left out sips looked nicely wrapped in pale red around. So, I asked my friend if he could render some light with his mobile phone while I took the shot from top.

The outer circle seen on the picture is actually the rim and red inner core is the left out drinks where light comes though. Though the pixels don’t look so low quality, I had a Nokia phone with only 1.2MP for this shot.

My home was located not far from Thoiba Mosque. So, I always went there for prayers, though not all. This morning I had the first prayer on New Year and I saw something new afterwards. When I was leaving the mosque it was this pair of home-made slippers that caught my attention. At first I thought it was some kind of security the guy has put on and then I came to wonder how the man would walk as there was no straps in it. Even if he was carrying the straps in his pocket there must be a place to attach those to the slippers.

A closer look discovered the slippers were screwed down on the piece of wood, both the slippers on one piece. He must have been carrying not only the strips but a screw driver as well. He would not be able to unscrew those four in each without a screw driver. The screws didn’t look freshly driven into and some were a bit rusty as well. So, I thought it must have been something else.

Each slipper had a cross mark on, which some people do to identify the slipper and to warn others not to take it. But this was no ordinary slippers.

At last, I came to conclude that it was a sign telling not to keep the slippers on the stairs.