by With tourism responsible for 90 percent of its tax revenue, the Maldives is closer than most to welcoming international visitors. Every year the tiny island nation (population 524,000, or about the size of Manchester) spends tens of millions promoting itself with one simple message: come in – if you can.
Now that offer comes with a caveat: no Israelis are allowed. This weekend, Mohamed Muizzu, the country’s sixth elected president, announced to the world that his government would pass new legislation to prevent anyone from entering the Maldives on an Israeli passport.
The move is part of Muizzu’s wider push to strengthen his pro-Palestinian credentials in the face of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
According to Maldivian government figures, about 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year, accounting for 0.6 percent of total arrivals.
While the move may be clearly discriminatory, it probably isn’t causing tourism leaders to lose any sleep just yet – even if some Jewish campaigners have pushed for a wider boycott on social media.
But could it backfire in the long run?
For the average tourist, the Maldives is still synonymous with high-end lagoon resorts, complete with dreamy overwater bungalows and stylish beachside restaurants. Away from the private islands and honeymooners, lies the real Maldives: a harsh Islamic state with strict politics.
For years, the country has tried to keep these lives separate. But has he shown his hidden side now?
This duality may come as a surprise even to people who have visited the Maldives, many of whom will have flown into the spectacularly ramshackle Male airport to find representatives ready to send them to a venue Islands.
But how many tourists sipping their cocktails at their overwater bungalows realize that, on the other side of the blue waters, they could be fined or even flogged for doing the same?
Funnily enough, it’s not something most resorts or brochures bother to mention. But with the country in the headlines for its anti-Israel stance, could it inadvertently draw attention to the “real” Maldives?
A country where everything from conservative dress codes to public displays of affection and same-sex relationships (both banned) are enforced by criminal law, and where politics occasionally turns violent.
An excellent book The Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical AutocracyBritish journalist JJ Robinson (who edited the country’s only independent English-language newspaper) introduces Maldivian politics, at least to outsiders, with an episode of Game of thrones.
Rather than classic divisions on the left, parties are based on personal vendettas, with administrations seeking to wield the levers of power against their opponents.
In recent years, the country’s politics seem to have become more aggressive and nationalistic towards outsiders. “Recently developers have definitely focused more on prioritizing the interests and sovereignty of the Maldives itself,” says Viraj Solanki, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who has hosted security dialogues across South Asia and the wider regions.
Indeed, in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, current president Mohamed Muizzu rallied behind a Trump-esque “Maldives first” platform, campaigning against the long-term presence of the Indian military in its waters the country.
In contrast, Muizzu is more welcoming to China, which the US has not noticed.
Could the keep be a threat to tourism? Unlike Mallorca and the Canary Islands, the Maldives are not taking to the streets to complain about the influx of visitors (most of whom fly to their bubble islands within hours of their arrival and not they are going to have a party in the local restaurants) .
That said, the avenues for angry protests are somewhat more limited in the Maldives than in a European social democracy.
Then there is the elephant in the room: terrorism. “On a per capita basis, more foreign recruits to the Islamic State came from the Maldives than any other country,” says Viraj Solanki.
In fact earlier this year, the Maldives returned 21 of its citizens (mainly women) who had joined Jihadi groups in Syria. They will now undergo anti-ban training.
With all that in mind, do tourists have to think twice about the Maldives after all? For all the geopolitical intrigue, for the vast majority of visitors, probably plus ça change.
Cocooned on your own island, it’s as easy to ignore Maldivian politics as it is to tune out Westminster or Holyrood. Sure, it may not be the most impressive approach to tourism, but it clearly works with strength.
But in recent years more tourists are trying to escape the super-custody of corporate resources. The Maldivian government, which oversees the entire tourism industry, has allowed locals to open small guest houses on residential and fishing islands, giving visitors a chance to see real Maldivian life.
Although popular with backpackers, this was not entirely without incident. In 2014, clashes broke out when an Israeli surfer staying on the island of Thulusdhoo vandalized a poster that was the size of a Star of David with a swastika. The action drew an angry response from the locals when the police chose to evacuate a group of Israelis for their safety.
Incidents like this have even inspired one Maldivian human rights activist to bravely voice the alarm about anti-Semitism. Ahmed Shaheed was the foreign minister of the Maldives before becoming the United Nations special rapporteur on religious freedoms. In 2022, he told a reporter: “I grew up in a country that was not anti-Semitic at first, but became anti-Semitic over time.”
In addition to the small fishing islands, there are the two city islands, Male and Hulhumale: equivalent to the Maldivian mainland. When I visited the Maldives in late 2022, I made it a point to book my vacation itinerary to stop at each of them. With 500,000 or so residents in a few square miles, they are as far away from the typical “fly and flop” experience as you can get. All the better, I thought.
Hulhumale in particular may have some of the best transferable hotels and restaurants in South Asia. But tourists don’t get any of the discounts they do at the resorts. Anyone caught with alcohol faces arrest and deportation and public displays of affection, even between married couples, may be prosecuted or provoked by the locals. Going through the streets on mopeds, you often feel like an inconvenience at best.
A small handful of visitors were much worse. In 2021, a British tourist was arrested in a plot to assassinate former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed. A year earlier, three foreign visitors (two Chinese and one Australian) were attacked by knife-wielding terrorists affiliated with a local branch of the Islamic State. Fortunately, all four survived.
Stories of knife attacks in particular, however rare, are sure to send shivers down any traveller’s spine. But visitors can at least make a cynical appraisal of the situation: since tourism accounts for one-third of the Maldives’ GDP, its government is not going to take any threats to travelers. Anyone who joins a terrorist group faces decades in prison or even death.
Still, while the risks to tourist safety may be very low back then, the Maldives is a complicated and conflicted country, at least for anyone who bothers to do their homework. Bringing that fact to the world’s attention seems to be a serious goal in itself as a reward for scoring some anti-Israel points.
