Local Tourism Development In Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives: Challenges And Solutions

Literature Review

Question:

Discuss about the Paths of Conventional and Alternative Tourism.

Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll is one of the secretarial districts of the Maldives that is developed by the Southwestern section of Huvadhu Atoll. There are total of 153 islands in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll out of which 10 are inhabited (Zubair, Bowen & Altinay, 2015). The study puts emphasis on accessing the local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu, Maldives because tourism is one of the most important sectors of the financial system and accounts for more than 30% of Gross Domestic Product and over 60% of foreign currency earnings.  Furthermore, the current research study properly synchronizes the information about the area Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives and then come up with recommended solutions where it shows that there is future prospect of local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives.

For more than 10 years, it is noted that tourism industry had become one of the most prevailing sector in present financial system that marks a new era in the monetary history of Maldives (Towner & Milne, 2017). The issue with local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives is that the ecology of this district and the reefs are extremely delicate. In addition, the issue that can be seen is the destruction of reefs from coal as well as sand mining in the development of first generation resorts. In case of coastal vegetation, it is noted that it is removed and altered at the time of construction of tourist facilities in this district. There is major conflict present between fisheries as well as tourism and that leads to exploitation of resources that became one of the major environmental issue. The Tourism Ministry had imposed strict regulations as well as guidelines for resort construction and operations at the same (Telfer & Sharpley, 2015).

The literature review section explains the challenges of tourism development in the Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives and then the recommended solution at the same time. The section properly highlights the issues that govern towards tourism development.

According to Shakeela & Becken (2015), Maldives belongs to fragile island ecosystem and this is the reason it is extremely vulnerable to some of the environmental threats like declining quantity and quality of freshwater, water pollution, loss of natural vegetation, beach erosion as well as natural and man-made degradation of the coral reef system.

Some of the geographical challenges include smallness of the islands, problem with connectivity like transportation facilities, size of the inner lagoon, natural coastline as well as present flow pattern of the coast and health of the island vegetation (Sharpley & Telfer, 2014).

Research Paradigms

There is several multi-use conflicts take place in Maldives when the reef areas are primarily between the two main areas users that include both fisheries and tourism. In order to solve the problem that take place because of conflict of interest, 15 dive sites have been affirmed as protected areas (Shakeela & Weaver, 2016).

With the implementation of Tourism Master Plan, it will be required to help inhabited islands near resorts for establishing a self-financing waste management scheme that include increased number of populated islands with a implementation sustainable waste management scheme, re-cycling, proper disposal as well as waste collection and awareness programs. It is needed to support government who should establish or develop a proper waste management system on Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. It is needed to work with councils for establishing appropriate waste management services in preferred populated islands.

As rightly put forward by Ponting (2014), The Environment Protection Agency had engaged in identifying a number of marine protected areas as well as responsive environments in and across Maldives and some are yet to be developed or planned by the near future. On analysis, it is noted that some of the marine and global biodiversity hotspots are critical for the environment as well as nature conservation. Furthermore, efforts need to be taken for managing these areas that have been disadvantaged because of lack of correct management plans as well as method for enforcing management plans in the most appropriate way. There are some the case that leads directly to site overuse as well as resource sharing conflicts between fisherman, tourism business and sand miners. Some of the development plans need to be implemented especially in places where tourism business is active (Perry & Morgan, 2017).

According to Naylor (2015), it is important to properly manage the marine protected areas as well as selected responsive environments for minimizing human impacts with management plans as developed after discussion with the government agencies that include most of the private industries and the public ones. It is needed to create a Tourism Planning Committee at nationwide level so that they will plan to listen to the grievances over natural resources use that involves tourism activities.

As opined by Mowforth & Munt (2015), The Maldives had publicized a national level policy for making the country as biosphere reserve. Here, the house reefs need to be managed because of their importance to the tourism product as it is related to aesthetics, diving and snorkeling. In addition, the tourism business actually leads the way in environmental administration as well as conservation in the Maldives. Furthermore, the biosphere reserve theory mainly act as an opportunity for the business leaders for rule completion that will guide resorts for managing house reefs in an effective way. After implementation of the program, it will be easy to conserve as well as manage marine environment in and around resort islands. In this way, tourism sector help in driving the national biosphere reserve program in the near future.

Conclusion

Some of the impacts that get affected by the behaviors of tourist are damage to coral reefs, increasing waste as well as energy consumption. In order to solve this, national level campaign had been conducted to assist the visitor behavior that aligns with the environmental standards as and when required. Furthermore, the strategy used help in assisting the reputation of Maldives as a premier eco-friendly objective for the tourists (Mohamed & King, 2017).

With the information gathered, it is noted that Maldives is treated as one of the susceptible countries where there is predicted global climate change as well as lasting continued existence for the tourist who visit the place. In case of medium-term, impact takes into account seas that may inundate low lying islands as well as sea surface temperatures that are combined by sea level rise as it affect the growth of corals and their natural adjustment abilities and increasing severe weather that directly affects the ideal climatic conditions in Maldives. Furthermore, the tourism sector had been treated as exposed place as the islands are small, geographically unbalanced as well as depends upon healthy coral reefs as it is located within 100 meters of the shoreline.

• To encourage local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives
• To identify the issues that hampers the tourism development in Maldives
• To recommend solutions to the issues identified and plan for development in the tourism sector in Maldives (Modica & Uysal, 2016).

1. How far local tourism can be developed in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives?
2. What are the issues or challenges with local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives?
3. How can local tourism possible in Gaafu Dhaalu, Maldives and its importance for the same?

Research Paradigms or philosophy are a system of thinking as well as basic orientation to theory and research (Lee, Hampton & Jeyacheya, 2015). Furthermore, Epistemology is a concept of theory of information that refers to instances on what is treated as satisfactory information in the given research study. On the other hand, Ontology is one of the theory that explain whether the social world be deemed by anything that is external to social actors or something where the social actors built up activities from their own perceptions and actions of these actors. The three research paradigms are explained below with proper details and from that one will be selected by the researcher for this present research study on “Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives”.

Positivism can be treated as a empirical and quantitative approach where the hypothesis testing are used for discovering the relationships as well as information that are generalizing to the population that include rational empiricism, developmental, psychodynamic, covers law model and behaviorism (Jaleel, 2013).

Realism is quite similar to positivism philosophy that actually commit to an external reality where the scientists should have their attention aimed at towards a common goal. Here, the researcher can share the belief where the natural and social sciences can make use of same methods for collecting data and it widely differs as it admits the notional terms and not directed to pragmatic clarification. Realism actually states the reality that need to be understood by use of natural science methods (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016).

Interpretivism signifies a research approach used for the social sciences that have to respect the differences between the objects that are studied in the natural sciences and the people. It can be said that Interpretivism is opposite to Positivism. Here, the researcher believes that the study of social world needs different prospect of research approaches where one highlights the difference from the world of nature to humans. Interpretivism actually understand on how people creates as well as uphold their social worlds by using thorough observation of people in natural surroundings in the most appropriate way (Fallati et al., 2017).

After complete analysis all the other research philosophy, the researcher will be using Positivism research philosophy as links with the current research study on “Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives”. The research will be using both primary data and secondary data that will lead to scientific data collection method and this is possible only if the researcher selects Positivism research philosophy for the present study. Positivism actually supports the natural science methods that can be applied to the study of social reality and this is the only reason why researcher has to select this philosophy because it is important to know how far the tourist and the local people desire to have Maldives as a place to be develop in the near future (Chaudhuri & Ray, 2017).

There is lot of difference between deductive and inductive approaches used in the research and it is essential for the researcher to know and then decide what is appropriate in the present research topic on “Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives” (Ali, Cullen & Toland, 2015). The two research approaches are explained below with proper details and from that one will be selected by the researcher for this present research study on “Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives”.

In case of deductive approach, the main emphasis is on the causality as well as begins with a hypothesis. This approach aims as well as tests the theory because it is already present before and then the researcher only analyzes and draws conclusions to existing theories. Deductive approaches are associated with quantitative data collection (Buckley, Shakeela & Guitart, 2014).

In case of inductive approach, the main focus is on using the research questions to narrow down the scope of the research study. This theory is innovative where the researcher comes out with new theory that can be taken from the data that are not used before. Inductive approaches are associated with qualitative data collection.

After complete analysis all the other research approach, the researcher will be using deductive approach as links with the current research study on “Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives”. Deductive approach is used over inductive approach by the researcher as they use existing theories for the study and then draw conclusions at the end (Ali, Cullen & Toland, 2015).

Tourist guides who are responsible to show the place Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives will be interviewed as they have complete information. The other secondary data that will be used for the present study is reputed journal databases, books and websites on Tourism Ministry of Maldives (Buckley, Guitart & Shakeela, 2017).

The researcher will be selecting random probability sampling for selecting local residents of Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives and individuals who visit Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives.

Convenient sampling technique will be used by the research to select tourist guides who are working in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives (Ali, Cullen & Toland, 2015).

The researcher will be distributing questionnaires to the tourists who visit the place (Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives) and local population in that district to understand how far developed the district is and how far it is possible to develop in the near future. Questionnaire method will be used by the researcher in order to get proper insights of information on local tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives (Becken et al., 2014).

The researcher will be conducting Face-to-Face Interview with the Tourist guides while visiting Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. By interviewing the tourist guides of that place, it will be easy to gather facts and information on the present status of tourism industry in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives and future prospect in that particular place that can attract more tourist to visit that place (Arnall & Kothari, 2015).

Researcher will be collecting quantitative data and present it using tables and graphs. The quantitative data will be analyzed by using different statistical methods like regression and correlation. Questionnaire will be distributed to the local residents of Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives and tourist who visit Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. By using GoogleForms, questionnaire will be sent to the respondents via emails. The information collected will be computed with the help of SPSS software (Amzath & Zhao, 2014).

Researcher will be collecting qualitative data by using thematic data analysis approach where themes will be made that directly aligns with the research objectives and research questions for the research topic on Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives.

The researcher has the responsibility to collect valid and reliable data from the present research study otherwise the whole purpose of the study will be in waste. The sources used for data collection should be valid and checked by use of pilot study so that there is no room for mistakes (Ali, Cullen & Toland, 2015). The researcher will be conducting interview session with the tourist guides so the researcher cannot force any of the tourist guides to participate in the research study before prior consent and the respondents too have equal right to refusal if they have no interest to participate in the interview session. The respondents have full right to skip any of the questions that they feel is not appropriate. The questions asked by the researcher should not harm the sentiments of the respondents by any kind. The researcher needs to keep the information collected by this interview confidential because any leak of information will be punishable under Data Protection Act. Under this Act, researcher will be punished if they are using the information for personal use or involving any third-party to it. After the research is over, the researcher need to destroy the information and facts collected for the study so that there is no chance of this information to become public once again (Alam & Paramati, 2017).

It was difficult for the researcher to conduct this present study because it had too many limitations that the researcher had to overcome. The researcher had been allocated limited time to conduct the research study and this was one of the vital limitation that restrict the researcher to get into in-depth analysis on the present research topic. The researcher even faced difficult as there was limited financial resources to conduct the research study and this restrict in use of expensive theories and tools for the study. As the researcher had conducted interview session, it was difficult to match with the time frame as the tourist that were interviewed were busy with their work and very few showed interest to answer the questions asked by the researcher. Most of the tourist guides were reluctant in answering the question as they were not comfortable to share confidential information about that place.

Main Activities	1st week	2nd week	3rd week	4th week	5th week
Selection of Research Topic Local Tourism Development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives
Drafting of research objectives and research questions
Review of Literature
Research design
Quantitative data collection
Qualitative data collection
Limitation of the research study
Submission of the research proposal

Conclusion

At the end of the research, it is concluded that there is a scope of tourism development in districts like Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. It is just important to highlight issue or challenges that restrict tourism development in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives. It is because tourism is the most popular sector that earns the maximum GDP and thus preserve the traditional essence of any place. The tourist attraction places should be preserved so that individuals can go and visit those places and gain knowledge on why that place is famous and find out most unique experience. Every place has its own significance and beauty so any issue that is hampering this should be attained by the Tourism Ministry of Maldives. The above research properly identifies the issue and provides solutions that will surely make Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives a perfect tourist attraction or destination in the upcoming years.

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