Citing research showing the lack of enough Maldivian workers for resorts, the resort business group Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) has proposed raising the ratio of foreign workers at resorts to 70 percent.
MATI made the proposal in a paper released by the association with its proposals for the tourism industry based on research conducted by People First HR Consultancy. The People First research shows that Maldivian employees needed by resorts and the tourism industry as a whole between 2023 and 2027 would be unavailable.
The researcher forecast that the tourism industry would need 78,087 employees by 2027. This is 20,245 employees more than the total workforce of the tourism industry by the end of 2022.
Despite the available jobs, the number of Maldivians estimated to join the labor market during the research period was 18,658. Considering the current distribution of new workers across various industries, MATI's main concern is that only 2,439 of them are expected to join the tourism industry.
Based on the findings, employing the current ratio set by the Tourism Ministry of 55 percent foreigners and 45 percent Maldivians is not viable, MATI said.
Only a few resorts presently adhere to the official ratio of employees. According to figures released by the Statistics Bureau on the occasion of National Tourism Day, the number of resort workers was 52,482 as of 2022.
The number of expatriates working at resorts was 36,885. The number of Maldivians was 15,597. The figures show that the proportion of foreign workers in resorts has already reached 70 percent.
