Tourists return to Maldives

2004-12-30 21:44

Furana Fushi Island - Foreign holidaymakers are back in the water and resort hotel rooms are reopening across the Maldives as the Indian ocean nation's tourism business quickly rebounds from the devastating tsunami.

Waves swept completely across some of the tiny, low-lying coral islands Sunday that were hosting 17 000 international tourists at the height of the New Year holiday season. Beachfront bungalows were flooded or demolished, power and communications were knocked out, and thousands of tourists were evacuated in hastily organized charter flights.

But a combination of luck and geography, and the determination of many tourists to continue their holidays, has meant damage to the industry - the Maldives' economic mainstay - is less than originally feared.

In resorts Thursday, tourists swam and snorkeled near resort buildings that had windows and balconies smashed by the tsunami. Scuba divers descended next to concrete breakwaters in which the wave had punched gaping holes.

"My friends and family told me to go back home. But I told them I'd more comfortable here than in the cold," said Michaela Niedermeyer, 43, a holidaymaker from Vienna, Austria, who jumped on an inflatable mattress and paddled to shore after her bungalow, built on stilts over the water, was swamped by the wave.

Life goes on

Niedermeyer declined the offer of an evacuation flight home and moved to another resort after hers closed.

"Definitely, this thing is in the back of your mind and you think about it, but you continue your life," she said.

"My first impression was that we're done, we're history," said Joerg Limper, general manager of the 156-room Full Moon resort on Furana Fushi island, which bore the brunt of the tsunami because of its location on the eastern side of Male Atoll.

The wooden deck on which Limper was standing was lifted a metre into the air by a wave that inundated the island, which hosted part of the Miss World beachwear event in 2000.

"But after the first shock, you realise the situation isn't so bad." Limper said. "You restore power, communications. The situation becomes stable. ... We were very, very lucky."

Thirty of the resort's rooms are still occupied, and Limper said dozens more would reopen in coming days and weeks. He predicted that despite damage totaling millions of dollars, the resort would be operating at normal occupancy levels within one or two months.

Ismail Firag, a deputy director at the tourism ministry, said that tourist departures from the Maldives had slowed considerably and fresh holidaymakers were arriving.

Only 19 of the country's 87 resorts had completely closed and more than 8 500 tourists were in the country, working out to a hotel occupancy rate of 52% - far less than the 90% that would be normal at this time of year, but not a collapse of the industry.

Waves moved across islands without breaking

Resort buildings, constructed with modern techniques, withstood the impact of the tsunami better than the flimsy coral cottages of the Maldives' fishing villages.

As of mid-week, two foreign tourists had been confirmed killed, and roughly a hundred had been reported injured or sick. At least 67 Maldivans were killed, many of them swept out to sea from villages or small fishing vessels.

Officials and resort operators said the Maldives's peculiar geography - the archipelago's 1 190 tiny islands average about a metre in height, making it by some calculations the world's lowest-lying country - may also have ensured that damage was less serious than it was on the coasts of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

Although the Maldives's low height meant the tsunami moved completely across many islands, it also ensured the wave didn't rise and break as it hit land. Instead, most the Maldives felt the wave as a dramatic but relatively harmless swell of water.

"We've wondered for years what would happen if a tsunami came to the Maldives," Firag said. "Now we know - the energy and height don't build when the wave contacts the islands, so it gets dissipated through the chain."

Urs Umbricht, manager of the Baros resort, said a small shark stranded in the hotel's spa, but nobody was injured and the resort resumed operating normally within hours.

- AP