Originally Posted by
MikeFromTokyo
Clearly there are unfortunately such issues, but I do not believe that simply avoiding parts of the world with human rights issues is the best way to effect positive change. Resorts in the Maldives are a huge source of employment and revenue for the country, and for the most part are ethical employers. Refusing to visit the Maldives could indeed have a negative overall impact on quality of life for locals.
I agree with you, but... I don't think there is an easy answer to this one. I had a long conversation with a Tibetan businessman in the Lhasa airport about 15 years ago--before the train and at the beginning of massive incentives for Han Chinese to move to Lhasa and settle. Meaning before the ship had sailed on Tibetan independence and real autonomy. He felt similar to you, but said that a good chunk of Tibetans wanted no visitors, and felt that a "ban" on travel to Tibet was appropriate. There is no easy solution in many cases. To bring it back to topic, and to hopefully avoid the sword of the moderators--I am not sure that money spent in the middle of nowhere really trickles down to the rest of the Maldives. I would suspect that it is much like Cambodia where most of the tourist infrastructure is owned by a few wealthy individuals. Visiting Cheval Blanc would have very minimal benefit to the nation as a whole. I would love to be proven wrong, and I certainly don't have the data on hotel ownership in the Maldives, but...