The tourism industry directly and indirectly accounts for a high portion of revenue of the Government of Maldives. In December 2004, tourist arrivals reached more than 600,000 within a calendar year (MoT, 2005). In 2013, this figure almost doubled with 1,125,202 tourists arriving in 2013. Lease payments from hotel projects were US$ 48 million in 2004 with bed and departure taxes contributing US$41 million and custom duties another US$ 43 million (World Bank et al. 2005). By the end of 2013, there were 109 Resorts with 23,469 beds, 20 hotels with 1,708 beds, 136 Guesthouses with 1,918 beds and 163 Safari Vessels with 2,716 beds registered in the Maldives (MoT, 2013) generating a significant portion of government revenue.
With such a significant contribution to government revenue and direct contribution of 30% to annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), sustainability of the Maldivian tourism sector is of critical importance to Maldives. Negative impacts on the sector can have devastating effects on the community and economy of Maldives. Hence, addressing climate change associated risks to the sector is of critical priority for the Government of Maldives.
The tourism sector’s vulnerability to climate change lies in the fact that climate change undermines the resilience, viability and profitability of the industry as well as its value-chains both directly and indirectly. Major climate hazards to which resorts in the Maldives are exposed to regularly include, windstorms, heavy rainfall, extreme temperatures and drought, sea swells and storm surges. Of these, the risks associated with swell waves, heavy rainfall and windstorms are believed to be the most serious, due to their high frequency occurrence and great potential for physical destruction and erosion. The combined effect of storm surges and tides, or storm tides, are perceived as especially destructive to the tourist resorts. The rising ocean water temperature, acidification and coral bleaching is expected to have a serious impact on snorkeling and diving – the two main tourist activities in Maldives.
The Tourism Adaptation Project (TAP) addresses key infrastructure issues, and will formulate necessary policies, standards, codes and regulatory guidance that would facilitate necessary investments to increase the resilience of the tourist infrastructure to climate change in the Maldives. The project is the first of its kind in the Maldives where climate change adaptation measures are to be integrated into policy and planning instruments of a key sector such as tourism. The project strengthens the capacity of the Ministry of Tourism and tourism businesses to recognize evident climate risk issues in tourism operations and adopt appropriate adaptation measures to address them. To cover residual catastrophic risk, the project will develop the capacity of the government and the tourism industry to assess the feasibility of market-based risk financing mechanisms (such as weather index insurance) and ensure that tangible private-sector investments can be leveraged. The Project is funded by GEF/LDCF and implemented through an agreement between UNDP and the Ministry of Tourism.
The Tourism Adaptation Project supports Maldives to become climate resilient by integrating adaptation measures in development policies, plans, programs, projects and actions. This goal is to be achieved by increasing the adaptive capacity of the tourism sector in Maldives to respond to the impacts of climate change and promoting investment in appropriate, no-regrets adaptation measures.
The goals and objectives of the project would be achieved through the delivery of the following three Outcomes.
1.Strengthened adaptive capacity of the tourism sector to reduce risks to climate-induced economic losses.
2.Reduced vulnerability of at least 10 tourism operations and 10 tourism-associated communities to the adverse effects of climate change.
3.Transfer of climate risk financing solutions to public and private sector tourism institutions.
Furthermore a Maldives Tourism Adaptation Platform (MTAP) has been established to support effective public-private partnerships for CCA in the tourism sector. Utilizing the information gathered to date by the project, the planned activities for the project include the dissemination of the information, providing various forms of trainings to the industry specialists, working on potential insurance and risk-pooling options for the industry and ensuring the sustainability of the project. The project has established 10 small grants projects between TAP and non-government organizations and private companies to demonstrate how tourism operators and tourism-dependent communities can cooperate on joint initiatives to reduce common vulnerabilities.
Specific goals, objectives and outcomes are described in the Project Document and in the Project Inception Report. These reports, and other project related information can be accessed at http://tourism.gov.mv/projects/tap-project/. The TAP Project Management Unit (PMU) is established within the offices of the Ministry of Tourism.
Promoting the use of environment friendly technologies and good practices by tourism service providers and tourism dependent communities is identified as a key output for achieving Outcome 1 of the project. Therefore it is planned to launch a National Tourism Green Award to recognize efforts in this aspect of the tourism industry services.
Objectives of Maldives Tourism Green Award
The “Maldives Tourism Green Award” is an annual award presented specifically to agents of the tourism sector, for the performance and implementation of environmentally sound practices.
A tourism green award is especially relevant to the Maldivian tourism industry, since it is heavily dependent on the natural beauty of the islands. The promise of breathtaking underwater scenery with vibrant coral reefs, abundant marine life, and the idea of relaxing on sun-kissed beaches while overlooking the crystal clear lagoons, is what lures tourists to the Maldives, and are among the top selling points for the industry.
The award was initially launched in 1997 as the “President of Maldives Green Resort Award”, at a function held to commemorate 25 years of tourism in the Maldives. The award aimed to recognize the need to make the tourism industry environmentally sustainable, in order to make the industry itself sustainable and economically profitable in the long run.
The award was a discontinued in 2008 to introduce several other industry awards from the Ministry of Tourism. However, there are merits to the public and private sector by giving an award of this nature. The industry sees it as a prestigious accolade that will help the industry to market their product both nationally and internationally.
A draft of the new criteria has been developed with the technical input from various stakeholders to the tourism industry, and it reflects the Ministry of Tourism’s commitment to encourage tourist operators and facilities to adopt environmentally friendly strategies in the inception, performance, implementation, and maintenance of environmentally sound practices in tourist operations. The new criteria incorporates climate resilience strategies and investments in the tourism industry, as part of the Tourism Adaptation Project’s commitment to increase resilience to climate change in the Maldives.
Objectives of this consultancy
The “Tourism Green Award” is to be launched as a brand new product with a new logo and an updated criterion. The award will be based on new criteria for assessing registered tourist accommodation facilities including tourist resorts, hotels, guest houses and liveaboard vessels.
This consultancy is for a Consultant to develop the new documentation for the “Tourism Green Award” of the Maldives.
Award Categories
The categories currently identified for performance measures includes, waste management, suitable energy and GHG reductions, water conservation and management, coastal management, conservation of biodiversity, design at inception, renovation and upgrade, environmental related CSR. Additional categories may be suggested by the Consultant.
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