Abdulla Ghiyas, Chair, PATA Chapter, Maldives

06/09/20 • 29 min

As little as 50 years ago, the Maldives was nearly written off as a tourism destination due to the remote, inaccessible nature of its 1,200 tiny islands. Now, tourism leaders like Abdulla Ghiyas, former president of the Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators, are hoping the country’s biggest disadvantage will become its greatest selling point. In a post-lockdown, pre-vaccine world, he believes the country’s one-island, one-resort set-up is perfectly suited for isolation and social distancing.
Abdulla talks to David about how the country is preparing for a planned reopening to foreign arrivals on 1 July. He acknowledges that some source markets will take longer than others to return, but says that, with the right cooperation from airlines, travel operators and foreign ministries, they can offer a safe and welcoming environment.

Previous Episode

Tobias Ragge, Chief Executive Officer of HRS

HRS Chief Executive Officer Tobias Ragge is more optimistic than many of his peers. Providing a vaccine is developed, he suspects we could see the hospitality industry operating at 80% of 2019 levels as early as next year—not 2024 as many pundits predict. He also suspects this pandemic may have changed us more profoundly than we realise. In addition to business leaders operating more conservatively for a time, he expects the general public to emerge from time spent in quarantine with fundamental questions about life, work and the meaning of it all. This sort of paradigm shift could send ripples through society.
He says now is the time for organisations to sharpen their value proposition, as those that are able to showcase their value are the ones that will survive this pandemic. The one-million-dollar question: whether it’s the bigger hospitality brands that survive, or there’s a proliferation of distinctive, smaller brands.

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John Blanco, General Manager, Capella Bangkok

How do you maintain momentum when your hotel opening keeps getting pushed back? John Blanco, General Manager of the soon-to-open Capella Bangkok, discusses the challenges of ensuring his team of 240 ‘Culturalists’ remain focussed and engaged. Once it opens, he has high hopes the Capella will shake up Bangkok's luxury market, with a new, more disruptive approach to high-end hospitality, from a different style of operations to a more bespoke, tailored service culture.
While John acknowledges many of Bangkok’s key international source markets will take time to return, he is confident that, for affluent consumers at least, travel will be a top priority as we emerge from this crisis.