Best of the Maldives: Cashless – Centara Grand

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Centara Grand spa treatment

Centara Grand is getting rid of another kind of paper in its business…cash. ETurboNews resports…

“Guests arriving at Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives from November 1, 2012 can leave both their shoes and their cash behind, because from that date the resort begins its Ultimate All-Inclusive experience. Although Centara has always featured fully-inclusive accommodation, Ultimate All-Inclusive takes this concept to an entirely new level and represents the ultimate in luxury escapes. Included are champagne breakfasts served all the way through until mid-morning, a choice of three restaurants for lunch, and sumptuous dinners that offer a daily theme buffet, Thai cuisine, Italian dining at a romantic overwater restaurant, Japanese teppanyaki cooked to order, fresh seafood, and international dishes…Also included are credits of US$100 per person, per day, to spend at Spa Cenvaree village spa, with a range of treatments that include foot massage, Indian head massage, face relaxing massage, and a choice of body scrubs and upper-back massage…The package also includes Wi-Fi access in the rooms and across the resort, use of fitness facilities with programs designed by a personal trainer, tennis, snorkeling equipment, motorized water sports, and windsurfing lessons…A number of off-island excursions are also included such as a whale shark tour, sunset fishing, sunset cruises, and the local island discovery tour.”

Other resort have done ulta-all-inclusive plans comparable to this, but one feature that stands out for me here is the $100 daily spa credit. Nice touch.

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Best of the Maldives: Press Kit – LUX* Maldives / Gangehi

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LUX Maldives press kit

Bumf, swag and paraphernalia. That is the burden of conventional marketing. The most popular give-away (often sponsored) at trade-shows is a carrier bag to haul all of the brochures, pamphlets, flyers, fact sheets and other assorted promo material. After a tour, I have to watch my baggage weight with piles of paper I bring back. LUX* Maldives has remedied all that with their credit card USB press kit. After my island tour, PR Manager Dolores Semeraro handed me all the material I needed on the handy little device shown here.

As it happens, when I met with Raffaela Colleoni of Gangehi at WTM and they had the same gizmo. But they had a picture of the island on it. In fact, several of the business cards I collected featured aerial resort shots. I think this is a smart idea. The romantically diminutive dot nestled in swathes of turquoise IS the ‘product’.

Like the Maldives islands themselves, good things do come in small packages.

 

LUX Maldives press kit close up

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Best of the Maldives: Pool Number – Beach House Iruveli

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Beach House at Iruveli pool

One of the dividends to my WTM visit is coming away with a notebook full of new ‘Best of Maldives’ candidates through my discussions with the various resorts and the Tourism Ministry folks. One of my revelations was meeting with Haydee Cruz of The Beach House at Iruveli and learning about their ‘all pool villas’ concept.

Iruveli are neither the only nor the first ‘all pool villa’ resort (eg. Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru has the same concept), but they are the biggest. With their 83 rooms (versus 48 are Vabbinfaru) plus their 2 (!) main pools AND a special kids pool at the kids club, they coming to a splashing 86 pools in total (hat tip to Liz Panchang who pointed out the distinction). And these are substantial pools, eg. Length: 3.2m, Width: 2.3m, Depth: 1.1m.

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World Travel Market 2012

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WTM 2012 people

The World Travel Market 2012 concludes today with another packed stand at London’s Exel for the Maldives Tourism Ministry. Earlier in the week, I took some time to stop over and catch up with friends old (like Liz Panchang now with Quo Keen, see above left) and new (like Haydee Cruz of The Beach House and Iruveli, see above right…also photo credit to The Residence GM Thomas Barguil).

It’s always a great opportunity to meet some of the newer resorts who typically have a disproportionately high presence to get word out about their new properties. I was able to meet with Gangehi, The Residence, Jumeirah, The Beach House at Iruveli, Medhufushi, Bathala, Zithali, Constance Moofushi, Reethi Rah and Bandos.

I also had a chance to meet with the new Deputy Minister for Tourism, Mohammed Maleeh Jamal whowas very bullish about the tourism trends in general and, in particular, the strength of the UK market.

Good show, chaps.

WTM 2012 sign

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Stick Your Head Under Water

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David Attenborough

No election is needed to anoint wildlife presenter David Attenborough more than Commentator in Chief of all thing nature. More of an exhaulted grandmaster. His infamous series including ‘Life of Birds’, ‘Frozen Planet’ and of course, ‘The Blue Planet’.

The Blue Planet is as fine a cinematic exploration of the undersea world as you will ever watch. After 60 years of delving into every exotic nook and cranny of our vibrant planet, he shared (thanks Karla) what experience strikes him the most…

“So which spot on the planet would he recommend to give people a chance to enjoy living creatures at their best? The Galápagos with their iguanas? The Amazon rainforest? His answer comes as a surprise. “People say you cannot beat the rainforest. But that is simply not true. You go there and the first thing you think is: where the hell are the birds? Where are the animals? They are hiding in the trees, of course. No, if you want beauty and wildlife, you want a coral reef. Put on a mask and stick your head under the water. The sight is mind-blowing. ‘And that, actually, is still a mystery: why are coral reefs so beautiful and colourful? It is not immediately obvious, though the wildlife is wonderful: shell-less molluscs, crustaceans and shoals of fish that do not give a damn whether you are there or not. Your first trip to a coral reef will be one of the most transforming moments of your life.’ There is, of course, a downside. Coral reefs are now being destroyed at a staggering rate. Some estimates suggest around 600 square miles are lost every year, a rate double that of rainforest destruction. Reefs are dying because ocean waters are being acidified as carbon dioxide levels rise in the atmosphere as a result of human industrial activity.’”

So the best nature experience you can do is a snorkel on the coral reef. And the best place for snorkelling in the world is the Maldives. Simply the best experience in the world.

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Snorkelling Tops Maldives Activities

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Snorkelling survey 1

The votes are in! And, standing on a platform of dazzling views and enchanting creatures, the winner is ‘Snorkelling’.

In a recent “Maldives Visitor Survey 2011”, Snorkelling was listed as the ‘Activity Most Enjoyed’ by a landslide with 40% of the votes. People often think of the Maldives as a dive haven, and certainly the two are related, but Snorkeling was cited nearly twice a highly as Diving (17%…which was the #2 activity).

A landslide vote of confidence for the greatest snorkelling on Earth.

 

Snorkelling survey 2

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Best of the Maldives: Boulevard – Kanuhura

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Kanuhura boulevard

 

Turn on those lights! The starting pistol to American Christmas season might be ‘Black Friday’, but in the UK it is tonight’s ceremonial lighting of Oxford Street, the biggest shopping street in London.

The closest equivalent to Oxford Street in the Maldives is the Manhattan-inspired ’Fifth Avenue’ straight through the middle of Kanuhura island. Extended by jetties to the water villas and the welcome jetty on either side, the boulevard stretches for over 400 metres. It makes for a dramatic vista. But perhaps even more enticing for the plastic-toting visitors are the posh shops that line it in the centre that inspire its name. They even have their very own private label fashion. If you can’t get there before Christmas, at least you can take a 360 degree virtual tour here to get in the shopping spirit.

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