Maldives Uncovered: The Sunny Side Podcast
This podcast is all about the Maldives as a tourism destination. You'll hear insights from top industry leaders and experts. Join our community to get inspired and gain the knowledge you need to reach your business or personal goals.
Maldives Uncovered: The Sunny Side Podcast
Resilience and Leadership in the Maldives with Marc Reader
The podcast episode explores the unique challenges and opportunities present in the Maldives tourism industry through the lens of Marc Reader's extensive career. Insights into the importance of local culture, environmental sustainability, and effective leadership reflect the complexities and responsibilities associated with developing tourism in this iconic destination.
• Marc Reader recounts his journey from chef to resort general manager in the Maldives
• Emphasis on the significance of first impressions and the lasting beauty of the Maldives
• Discussion of the unique aspects that set the Maldives apart from other luxury destinations
• The critical role of Maldivian people in providing exceptional hospitality
• Environmental sustainability practices adopted by resorts to protect the beauty of the islands
• Leadership lessons and the importance of empowering team members in hospitality
• Exploration of current challenges facing the Maldives tourism sector
• Call for better government support and a long-term vision for the tourism industry
Welcome to Maldives. Uncovered the Sunnyside podcast by Destination Future. Diving into the heart of one of the world's most iconic travel destinations, you'll hear exclusive insights and expert opinions from top industry leaders sharing their knowledge on ever-evolving landscape of tourism in the Maldives. Whether you're a professional in the industry or simply passionate about travel, this podcast is your gateway to staying inspired and informed. Let's embark on this journey together as we explore the future of tourism in paradise.
Nabeel:Welcome to Destination Stitchers' Sunnyside Podcast here once again today with me is yet another Mark. Funny enough, this is not intentional. Our listeners, this is just how it is. It's happening, based on the schedules of our guests. Today with me, I have a friend and someone I admire highly and we have worked together over 15 years on and off. Today with me I have Mark Reader, who is a well-known general manager in few resorts in the Maldives. Mark, welcome to our podcast.
Marc Reader:Thanks, Nabil, and thanks for inviting me.
Nabeel:Well, to start with, as I just mentioned, I know you since 15 years. We worked in few resorts together, but just to let our listeners in with your story, tell us a bit about your journey in the tourism industry and how you came along to the Maldives and your career continues.
Marc Reader:Sure. Well, life started out for me way back. It was the 29th of November 1979. Nabil, I don't think you were born, but I started life out as a chef and I really always loved food. I mean, my family, we lived on a beautiful beach house at a place called Bungan Beach in Sydney and all of our lives and of course it was on a cliff face had a swimming pool and and a beautiful big home and it was the center point for entertainment. So my entire life was sent around on weekends with lots of entertainment and my mother putting together meals for 15 people very quickly and things like that. Essentially, my whole family has always been in the snow ski industry and it was one business and it's still there today. My brother's the owner of that.
Marc Reader:But I didn't want to go in and be doing that type of thing. I wanted to see the world and I wanted to see it. I love food because I watch my mum do so much of it and I also used to love getting in the kitchen with her and things. So that's where I started with an apprenticeship and in Sydney, and then I branched out and went to some really well-known restaurants on the east coast of Australia and worked my way through there. And then, when I was in a fabulous restaurant that some Aussie older Aussie people will remember in in on the Gold Coast Oscar's Garden restaurant, um, and it was through there.
Marc Reader:Um, I got a scholarship to Westminster College in London to study professional cookery and hospitality management and to take it further. So, off I went to London and, um, first thing I did when I got there was, uh, drop my bags at the reception of the college and I said where are my digs? And they said, well, you don't have digs with this, you're going to have to go and rent. And I thought, well, that means I'm going to have to go and get a job. So that evening the only person I knew in the whole of London met me, a girl from Queensland who took me out for dinner and we actually went to.
Marc Reader:Well, dinner at eight o'clock in the summer of London was, uh, was the. Was was sun up and warm and we were in the garden or the front of the Hard Rock Cafe on Piccadilly and we're just having a nice time together. And she said to the waitress have you got a job for this lad? And the, the girl that had pink hair. Her name is Kathy. Kathy said, yes, can you start at six, six o'clock tonight? And she said, my, my, my date said, yes, you can. So she took my bags and off I went.
Marc Reader:So I started working in the Hard Rock Cafe there, because it was walking distance from college and it was a full-time job. So, um, and then I progressed. Obviously I was going well with college and things, and then I ended up getting a job as a kitchen hand, uh, at the Gavroche, and I loved their, the chefs, they loved me and, um, as a kitchen hand who was always late, and of course, that was something you never did, but I got to see so much, so much of their butchery, their pastry and also their a la carte restaurant, and that totally inspired me and that's where I wanted to be. So I finished up with getting my diploma from Westminster College and came back to Australia looking for mum and I found out she was looking for a bed and breakfast in Tasmania. I said, mum, what are you doing there? We've just won the America's Cup. It's all going to be happening in Western Australia. Why don't we go over there and buy a restaurant? And we opened up a restaurant and we had that for 10 years and we went from $360,000 turnover in the first year to $2.8 million in our last year and it was a fabulous place.
Marc Reader:But through that there was an economic crisis the 1990s, right in the middle 1990. And it took us five years to financially get in the shit if I'm allowed to use that word and five years to get ourselves out of it. But it taught me everything about business and I absolutely loved it and went off to London to look for a job and of course I went to see Terence Conrad well, not Terence Conrad himself, but I went to see Conrad in restaurants Noel Kissin and interviewed for they were opening up a new branch called the Zinc Bar and Grill and I thought that would be fabulous because the concepts very much were similar to the restaurant I had and um, um. But I didn't get that job and all of a sudden I ended up getting a job with his opposition, a guy called Oliver Payton, to open up the Mash and Air, which is a microbrewery in Manchester, four stories with three different restaurants and um, and I went in there as the general manager and that was, you know, 120 staff and it was huge. It was a huge thing and I loved it.
Marc Reader:But it was through that my friend in Melbourne, martin Webb, contacted me and said we're opening up a wonderful store in Melbourne called George's. Would you come and join us as the operations manager? So we went back to Melbourne, worked with Terence Conran and Steve Bennett a famous guy that opened up a store called Country Road and I got called again from Martin and said look, we're going to be doing this project down in Melbourne. Would you like to come and join us? And I had a look at it and he said I'd like you to come in as the general manager of the hotel. And I'm going good grief, I've never been a general manager of a hotel. I've never been a porter in a hotel, let alone the general manager. So I thought well, all I need to do is think about leadership, and the leadership is surround yourself with great people. So I found a fantastic front office manager called Andre Ballieu.
Marc Reader:Loris White was my executive housekeeper, john Lineker is a beautiful and wonderful food and beverage director, and that was basically the main part outside of the sales office, which is headed up by Elizabeth Boydell. And we were thinking it was just going to be FITs Martin and I we're not a hotel. And she said you guys are not going to survive working on FITs. You're going to have to have the conference. Well, mice market, meetings, events, uh, meetings, incentives and conferences and events. So she worked on that side of it and I would have to say, with her and and her colleague duncan skein at the time, um, uh, and a number of others and Michelle Campbell, who's a fabulous marketing person and still does that type of work today. We launched this hotel and won so many awards over the time for everything from architecture to the situation of the hotel. It was wonderful. So I stayed there for nearly seven years and really, really loved it.
Marc Reader:I thought it's time to go and do something else and, funny enough, that resort just outside of Melbourne, the spa manager called me. She had left the company. She was brilliant. Amanda Wilson, she called me from the Maldives and I was sitting with my father at the point I think I was on the property and he had a globe of the world and I'm sort of spinning it around, trying to work out where the Maldives actually is. And anyway, on this globe you could imagine it can't put all the countries in the world. There was no mention of it and she goes no, just you know where the Sri Lanka is and of of course, it's the tea country. So, yeah, I knew it very well, went there. She says it's just down there, bottom left left of left of there. I said, on this globe is only, there's only ocean. So it didn't even sharpen the map and um, so I went off.
Marc Reader:Uh, and she, she rang me and she was the spa manager at Hawthorne and she said Tom McLaughlin, who's the CEO of Paraclum at the time and their head resort being Hurfen, said you know, he's coming to Sydney, he'd like to meet you. So I met him and Jane, his wife at the time, and all I can say is typically, tom, we ate in a restaurant, got terribly drunk and I think I had to ring him back the next day to say I can, can't remember, did I get the job? And, as it was, I got the job to go in as a resort manager under Mark Hare, who you've had on. Just before Mark left there, he moved on with the company and then went off to another company and I took over as general manager and you and I, I think we did a really, really good job and I think the core to that success was filling the off season and and going to Takagawa-san in Japan and and offering great rates.
Marc Reader:You know, you know secluded country and those rates wouldn't go out anywhere else and I think we did a outstanding job. I remember the I I've got, I my and correct me if you remember, nabil, but I think our ADR was $1,536, which made our rev par $1,000. And because we were sitting at 75%, 76% occupancy.
Nabeel:Yeah, those were the days. Those were the days.
Marc Reader:I tell you that really sparked things. But then from there I met my wife and we got married, much to everybody's warnings you know I had to be careful there. We got married and she had a wonderful daughter, has a wonderful daughter by the name of Clemence, and we went off to Singapore with Parak, went with the head office so that Clemence could go to school and I could have a job and stay with the company because it was going through immense change at the time. So I did that and Neil Palmer was appointed. He was an absolutely terrific guy and funny enough, he was, I think, a year or two years ahead of me at Westminster College in London, which is extraordinary because there was only about five international students there. So I remember him from there. But we never sort of shook hands and Neil Palmer came into the company and you know for me to put it in my words I'm sure he's got a different story, but my words was sort of pulling together Paraquem and making that the that's the luxury brand and a luxury and with a luxury spa, and sort of bring the family together.
Marc Reader:And I was there as a bit of a loose end. I was offered by Muhammad Ali, who we all know the cousin of the cousin of the cousin in the Manicou family who spoke. You know, just a wonderful man. He, you know, basically appointed me for the role as director of projects and of course when Neil arrived he pulled me off the sid mark, mark, you and I both know you're not a project manager, because we're talking about engineering here and developing resources and I said, I know, but you know it was really interesting and so on. So anyway, I was just so. So my title changed to special projects and I did special projects, everything from running up on leads that came in and handing, doing a report on the lead and then handing that back to Neil, to doing crisis manuals for all of Universal Resorts and Paracrum so there's one crisis manual for everybody Doing exec, do the initial screening of all executive appointments for the company back in the Maldives. So you know custom managers, custom directors and things like that at that level, and then and then the general manager of that property and Neil would interview them thereafter. So I did all that side of it and a number of other things. It was really really interesting. But at the end of the day I'm not a desk jockey and I've really missed people because I was working in a small team team about five or six people, and a shout out to to Angie Leo, who was just terrific and she was looking after the sort of marketing, public relations side of everything. And we, you know, and I really I knew that they, I was in a it was a bit of a lost cause and they did too, but I think nobody wanted to talk about the elephant in the room, so I resigned my position and it was the highest paid position I ever had to, no job at all. Neil warned me about it. He said don't do that. But I did and went back to Australia with my lovely wife. We bought a cafe and I had that for about five years. We sold that business and, lo and behold, I had that for about five years. It was opposite. We sold that business and, lo and behold, I had settled everything and closed the business.
Marc Reader:And I was in Woolloomooloo and I was looking at a project in Bali with an old friend of mine and then Mark called me Mark here, or Shally, called me Aminat Shally and said, mark, would you like to come back to the Maldives? And I said you, betcha, but you know what's the project. Like she said, get online, have a look. And I looked at Finna Lou, I looked at the opening and all of the YouTube and fell in love with it and it was exactly what Mark promised and Shali promised. And I went in there again as resort manager for Mark and and uh and uh and I stayed there for six and a half years.
Marc Reader:So three years into that it was bought out by Seaside Collection, a German-owned company, and I sort of handled all of that right through with with the owners of Finna Lou, um and uh, the transition through to the new owners and try to keep it all calm and and keep everybody you know, nobody freaking out or worried, because Mark's a great guy to work for and these foreign people that never been the Maldives they're all worried about it and things like that.
Marc Reader:So I think I achieved, I worked well with that side of it and then they wanted to.
Marc Reader:Then they wanted to do a renovation and that was wonderful because I can tell you what Mark did with the budget that he had is was absolutely exceptional for an entry-level five-star resort. But this company wanted to turn into luxury five-star and they spent about 30 million dollars renovating and of course, we started the renovation ahead of time because we were closed down by by COVID and between the 23rd of March, when we said goodbye to our last guests and closed it like the rest of the country, um, we went on and did the full renovation and a guy, christoph um really was a fabulous support to me who came in um and uh, came in before the closure and we worked on it together, coordinating between the owners once and the construction guys and the contractor, and anyway, through all of that, we had 700 workers on island and I'm on island by myself with this huge swimming pool, and the wine cellar was locked, which was a shame I think it was a good idea.
Marc Reader:I think yeah yeah, yeah, otherwise we might be still building today um, and we just got on with the job, um, and of course, we didn't know we all took salary cuts and things like that of what's going to happen um, but we all had a job and the owners did really good by the employees and they all got 50% of pay for a long, long time and we reopened the resort on the 1st of November very low occupancy I remember it being about 15% for the month but then December hit and, oh my God. Well, the whole of the Maldives remembers December 2020 and Q1 21. It was the most GST the government has ever earned and we were all thinking we were heroes. A destination and the government handled things really well. And I think the government handled things really well too, because they're isolated islands and you know they're all individual little countries and, providing you do your safety audits and you go through and you do things properly, you can do business. Well, we all thought we were heroes. And then, come the 1st of April, the rest of the world opened up and, of course, the occupancies didn't quite sustain as high as that.
Marc Reader:I was there for another three years, basically, and midway through well, the end of 1st Q1 23,. I resigned my job earlier on and we were waiting for the right gm to come across, which is stephen phillips. He's there today and he's. I don't know anybody, any. I don't know a gm. I'm not taking the mickey out of all the gms. I know a lot of gms but I don't know any gm that is so well connected in with the tour operators. And that's exactly what you and I were with hoof and that's why I knew it was a missing ingredient, because the owners didn't want it.
Marc Reader:But when I resigned I sat down with the owners down at the milk bar, so to speak, at Finnaloon, and I said look, your next GM has to be, you have to allow him to travel and he has to be able to visit tour operators directly. That's the way the Maldives it's a bit like all Butler resorts, that's the Maldives. The GM visiting the tour operators in their offices in London, spain, spain, france, tokyo, wherever they are, is a must. And he was so well connected. And yeah, I didn't interview him at all because obviously I was leaving and it was a conflict of interest of interest. But they did ask me some feedback on his CV. I don't think they did ask. I just gave it. I wrote to the owner, the owners and the guy that was in charge of recruiting Stephen from the seaside collection site, and I said you're mad if you don't. And Stephen negotiated a deal and he's still there today and doing a great job in a far tougher environment, I have to say, than I was. And that is just in relation to the arrivals to that category resort, because we'd only we'd not really established you take something like Vela or Cheval Blanc or something like that. They've already been established at that very high niche. Philaloo needs to get there from an entry-level five-star to a luxury five-star or butler resort, because that basically happened, I think, at the beginning of Q2-23. So the all-Butler side of things. So at last, finlay Lou is exactly what people expect from the Maldives and it's in that luxury. And now they're in the middle of developing Island 2 and 3. There's four islands there, um, the last two islands at the end of the sandbank, um, and they're going to be doing a great job.
Marc Reader:And since then I've taken a bit of a break. I've started studying on and off my mba, um I've been renovating this house, where I am now in thailand and living with my family and taking my son to school and picking him up and those wonderful things that a dad always wants to do. I don't want to be an absent father and I've done loads of other things. And the other side of the coin is I've been self-educating on so many things that we never get time to do in the Maldives, because it's a six-day working week, day and night, and after six and a half years you kind of have to. It's a bit it feels like a bit like getting out of prison, although it's a very nice prison, but you kind of have to come up. And I can't tell you, nabil, just how much I've learned about myself, about my industry, about Thailand's tourism industry and very much about the Maldives and all the struggles it's going through. I keep very close to all of that yeah, that's my background and I really love it.
Marc Reader:I love the Maldives. I really do think that the government should be taking a few of us to one side and giving us an open visa for the rest of our lives. But that's that's.
Nabeel:That's a subject for another day yeah, that's, that's the dream ask, isn't't it? I mean, what an introduction. I've known you for, like I said, 15 years, but I know most part of the story, so it's great for our listeners to listen in. I know it's a lengthy introduction, but there are so many learning moments there and experiences for the young entrepreneurs and young people coming into the industry to take on. So you mentioned how you got introduced, amanda wilson, whom I know very well as well because we just worked together. So you first. Your experience was in uberfan. So what was your first impression just when you came to the Maldives and after the second time you came back, and how it has evolved.
Marc Reader:My first impression of the Maldives. I have to start by saying this. I remember reading about the what is a successful architect, and it was in the 80s to 90s, and one of them was certainly very much an Australian sort of I would say Australia, Glasgow, all of those places that we've been taken old buildings and done them up. They leave these old doors on, and the outside they even leave the graffiti and then you open the front doors to the home or the warehouse has been converted to this huge element of surprise. Well, let me tell you what my mind was with the Maldives Vellner Airport, which wasn't called Vellner Airport.
Nabeel:Then there's a guy standing outside, not on the runway, but just the entry of immigration with a machine gun over his shoulder. There's two there.
Marc Reader:I think Right. And then I went into this building that didn't look like it had been painted since 1979 when I first started in the industry, and I'm thinking, oh my God, what have I got myself into? Because I really had no idea and, you know, I wouldn't know the rest of it. And then I met the crew from Hoofen, the Thakurus, and they were absolutely terrific. And then this maddening speedboat ride. I don't know why they had to go so fast, but anyway, I'm not a captain. So we had this crazy ride through the middle of the night I feel like I'm going into the abyss and we arrived after.
Marc Reader:I think it was called the Singapore Airlines Flight 452, that with that transfer you can kind of arrive into town and get to Wolfen by about 11.30 island time at night. And I got there and the boat quietened down, it was very quiet and the lights of the island it looked pretty magnificent. And then people and a few voices came up. And then I saw people standing on the jetty and I went up and I met the wonderful Jane no, not Jane Quinn who was the recruiting, the HR girl, australian girl, ah gosh. Anyway, I'll come back to that, um, but they were all up there probably even you as well, in the bill, although it was a bit late to be out of bed, but probably I was in bed by then.
Marc Reader:Yeah yeah, yeah, natalie, her name was, yeah, hr Natalie, big Natalie, um, and uh, she was there. And then there was, uh, mark Hare, and the late Mark Carson which a shout out to him too in relation to what significant role he played and a number of others, and then we just they all said, hi, welcome. And then we said, well, someone I think it was Shelley will take you to your village, your villa. So we went to the villa and everything went really quiet because it was late at night, on orphan, and I'm thinking this is just unbelievable paradise and that that feeling has never left me. And that's the element of surprise that that airport does give you a hell of a surprise. And thank goodness they're opening the new terminal soon. But then the resort is wonderful and I have to say, over 17 years it is that we've known each other in the village. I think about 10 of those or a bit more.
Marc Reader:I've been resident of the Maldives and that feeling that I had that night at Hoofen I get every night, and that look of the blue water of the Maldives, I've never got used to it. As a four-year-old boy, I told you I came from the snow ski industry. One of my first memories was sitting on a dinky up in Threadbow Village and it started to snow. I remember how quiet it was, how peaceful it was and how beautiful it was. And to this day, I'm now 61 years of age, whenever I go to the snow country and I see snow falling in that environment, I never get used to it.
Marc Reader:Well, one thing I can tell you I never get used to the Maldives. I never take it for granted. I thank God for the opportunity every day. And that's what drove me, and that's why I love all of my CV, is that I haven't worked in that many places, but I've been in the industry a long time because I stay a long time, but I make sure that I get the right job. And it was just breathtaking, was just, it was just breathtaking. And um, and you know, you know, shout out to shazleen, uh, not aminat shazleen aminat shazleen fatima
Nabeel:shazleen right wonderful front office manager back then. Yeah, they're all good people out there. Well, uh, thank you. Uh, I mean, mark, what a story again now. So, moving on to the other segments that I have few other questions. So I mean, you just mentioned how your first experience or first impression of the Maldives, rather and so well in your view, what makes Maldives so special or stand out as a destination compared to other similar luxury destinations out there?
Marc Reader:What I was amazed of then, the island Telefish, which we won't go into on this occasion. Back to one side, I found that the environmental habits that resorts did in 2007 were way ahead of the rest of the world then, and I think what they're doing today is equal. They're doing the best they can. It makes you think, you know, I'll wrap my sandwich in foil or in Glad Wrap. What do you do with that environmentally correctly, you know, as a waste product? You know it really makes you question garbage, and I have to say they did. I mean, you know in those days we had to depend on incinerators, but no matter what that side of it is concerned, I think it was dealt the best it could be. I think, breaking down glass back to that very fine sand that is broken down, to recycling, so many things I think those things are very unique and I think it's really important to the tourist. There's a hell of a lot more than you do. I mean people think. I think the rest of the world thinks when they don't have plastic straws, they're doing something to the environment. It goes so much deeper. When you're in the Maldives, you've got to really maintain your generators well, to make sure that they're not only efficient but they're also good to the environment. They're not blasting up like smoke things like that for your electricity generation. You know, I think the environmental side is really, really important and people can criticise, but there's not a lot we can do.
Marc Reader:I walk up and down beaches every morning for exercise and I'm forever picking up things and, yes, you know, 50% of it is definitely from the Maldives itself, 50% of it maybe, maybe more. I mean everything from kids nappies to whatever, which is something that you know it's. You pick it up. But you also find a lot of bottles and things that are coming. They're all written 100% in Chinese. Well, an export product must have English on somewhere, so they're not even export products. So they're actually coming all the way from China and I will say India as well, and then this, that and the other. So they're doing the best they can with what they are, with what they're doing. But I think it is really unique. But I don't want to capture and go down the same road as what Mark did when I saw. I listened to his interview today driving home. But I do agree with what Mark said.
Marc Reader:At the end of the day, I think, if you put all of what you spoke about with Mark Hare, I think you need to remember something that's dear to my heart as well, but for a slightly different reason, and that is the uniqueness is the Divahi and the Maldivian people, without a doubt. I'm not saying you're the world's most beautiful people, I'm not saying all of those sorts of things, a bit like Fiji. They're unique in their own way, but the Maldives people you cannot replace that. You cannot, and the thing is that's what it is, so don't try to be what you're not. Let me get back to that. Is that make sure that the attitudes of the Maldivian people on the islands remain as they were in 2007 and got better. I tell you where you're better. You're better with English skills. At least you've got one language that you're really, really good at, that's internationally accepted and um, and everybody's got it because of the schooling and the rules that the government put in 20 years ago, if not more, and that beautiful Maldivian smile.
Marc Reader:The challenges the future of the Maldives is that it needs to treat itself as a small business, and this is my concept, is that. Take every large city of the world. We'll call them big businesses. We'll call them Microsoft, you know London, paris, new York, la-di-da yes, they're big. In their eyes, maldives is one of the small businesses of the world, right? So treat it like a small business. If you go into a small business and you're not making any money, cut your costs, put your prices up, that's okay.
Marc Reader:I don't mind about this GST thing that everyone's screaming about, and I don't mind about the airport either. You've got to put it in context. It costs you just as much to land in Sydney and Ireland and London why not where you are? But I think there's a lot of waste in the back of house. And thing is, I had the opportunity to work with a fabulous guy called um ibrahim rashid of fantasy. Um foods in in malay and, uh, his business called sepia in melbourne, and also visit his island called hortifical. I'll give you an example of of that when I was there for five months just recently and and I lived in Malé. That has to clean itself up. That's the back of house I found the Maldivian.
Marc Reader:You know lots of Maldivian companies did not like employing Maldivians because they're not working hard enough. Well, I can tell you, out on the resorts, they're the hardest working people I've ever known in my entire life. Maybe that's because they're remunerated through service charge Far better, I don't know. But I got a feeling when walking around town that it was a bit like the feeling I got when I turned up in London in 1982 to go to Westminster College. It was Thatcher. The boats had just left Plymouth to go to Argentina to fight a war. The people had given up on themselves, they didn't see a future. And the Maldives is there, just there. And I know that 50% of the people I was thinking were Maldives are not from the Maldives. That's okay, I know that.
Marc Reader:But I just felt as if a lot of people are not. They're waiting to be handed something, whereas their forefathers fought every day and every night for everything they have today. And I don't feel as if these generations coming through have got quite the same attitude. Then you find the children of the wealthy people who did all this work and so on. Well, most of them live half their lives in Seagulls Cafe upstairs, you know, and I'm not taking the mickey out of them, but I just didn't feel as if they were going. Dad gave us this, now we're going to take it to here Like people, like wealthy people that have got inheritance, wherever they are in the world.
Marc Reader:My respect goes to those that have taken that inheritance and made something good with it and improved it and developed it. And I didn't feel as if that was there and Nabila, that's my feeling, it's purely me Right and I just didn't feel that they had their forefathers' backs. I think they were just waiting for that money to just keep rolling in and I think they should be thinking about, if that money is rolling in, what good can they do with it? Even if it isn't in their own bottom line profit in developing resorts, they should be putting it towards their people, their villages, do something, put some art around the islands, anything you know, ibrahim Rashid, I'll never forget.
Marc Reader:I went to his horty farm and he had all these lime trees that were about three foot high and I said well, are you going to be doing limes? He goes no, I'm going to be giving those to local islands. I said what do you mean? He goes I'm going to give one to every house. And I went what a nice idea. And that conversation I had. I hadn't even started with the company and that conversation was the reason I joined, because he was doing something for his people I think with uh, with those stories, it's a good way to do good spot, to segue into the leadership right and community.
Nabeel:You just touch base on, on the multivian employees and uh, you know how great they are and how important it is and also, um, some of the leadership uh lessons that we have from, whether it's from Mr Rashid's gesture towards these lime trees and from your experiences. So I want to take you down to this leadership point. What kind of what is what leadership lessons you have learned from your experiences here in the Maldives and what could be the benefit for others in those takeaways?
Marc Reader:The one thing that you have to bear in mind is that you have to start taking responsibility for yourself as a leader, especially in the Maldives. Why? Because you're ever present, day and night, really seven days a week, so you have to always look respectful. You've got to always. You know I'm. You know I'm just a clean, shaven guy. You come from a different environment because you guys love what you love and but you know, but at the same time, if I was a bearded guy, I would have a beautifully treatment. I would always. You know, I'd always be in that situation. You've got to always remember that everything don't do anything wrong, because people will follow you and you really need to be disciplined. If you need to go and do something naughty or get off the island, get off the island, but don't do it there. The Maldivian people, where I think things are different, which is a good thing to real is the difference.
Marc Reader:When I arrived in the Maldives, I remember Aminat Shali brought a whole lot of girls over from school, from Mali, over to talk to them, and I talked to them in Celsius restaurants standing in the sand at Hawthorne and we were trying to encourage them that you don't have to leave school, get married, have a baby. You can actually actually have a career and have a baby and you don't have to do at the same time have a baby when you're 35, you know whatever. Have a family you know 32, whatever. But these kids family you know 32, whatever. But these kids were like you know. You can just see they're just waiting to get married, and all respect to the country and its people of that feeling, but I knew that I would protect. All of my leaders would know our biggest goal is to protect our girls and make sure they feel comfortable and at home and if we do that, we'll attract a lot more because, don't forget, there's 50 of your population yes, I, I agree, right, I mean we.
Nabeel:I mean I've worked with you in two different locations and but I've been in the industry for, you know, over 25 years. You here I'm giving away my age to the listeners, but you know, wherever I have worked with worked in resorts there's a huge respect and huge protection and protocol around making sure our female leaders are kept safe and they're comfortable, right. So I agree with you there and I think this is a great moment to close the podcast. We are touching one hour now. So in closing, do you do you want to add any, because I normally ask if you have a memorable moment, but you mentioned that your memorable moment, or the first impression was quite special. Anything you would like to add in closing?
Marc Reader:yes, yes, I'm an outsider now looking in and all of my mates I'm on their WhatsApp groups and things like that and I see all the struggles that resorts are going through at the moment and the government's going through. Quite frankly, other than to say that it would be nice if the Maldivian government had a bit more longer, more distant plan of what's happening before them on their desk than having to change policy overnight. I think there's a lot of negative feedback about the increasings of TGST, the increasing of bed tax and the cigarettes. Well, that's a good thing if everyone stops smoking, so I'm all for. I'm in a small business which is as a country it is.
Marc Reader:I would fix up your expense management and put the prices up, and that's fine and they're doing that. But they can't keep turning to the results for everything and they are and they need to show some leadership in their expense management and, as I can read, they're doing it. They're actually and I'm glad they're listening to people like the World Bank that are coming in and offering feedback and support and all the rest of it. Many other communities, many people are coming in and the world and all the listeners need to remember that in 1972 was the first time a tourist person really turned up as a tourist in the Maldives with air shulankar or whatever. It was no salon salon, air salon Salon or something like that.
Nabeel:I was in Maldives. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in 1972.
Marc Reader:And that's where it began. And that's only 50 years old and I have to take my hat off to the government. Um, well, the people of the Maldives that have built, the leaders, the entrepreneurs in that country are extraordinary. I think it would be nice if you guys let the leader stay the leader for a little bit more than one term, because to fix the business takes more than two, three or four years. Um, and they need it, needs consistency and finish approach, finish their projects.
Marc Reader:But what's planning for the economic zone, which is probably going to be 20 years away? I don't know. $30 billion, whatever it is, but get the import going, those basic things. That's all going to happen. That will pull it all together. Fiscal spending and give government handouts to the wealthy should be stopped, and and give more to the people in need and rather than all that, I think, and you know, stop leaning on on the resorts and there's a little bit of discrepancy in in in its people, and that is I think there needs to be.
Marc Reader:If you want me in the country as a entry level and you've given me a visa, you should respect me enough that I also get minimum wage rights as well. Um, and I see too many people, um that have come into the country and really the country's taking advantage of um, taking advantage of not having that minimum wage for people, for all people, if they've got a visa. It's hard to get into Australia in a bill, but the minute you do, you have the same rights as me, and I'm talking about not as a permanent resident, I'm talking about as a working visa. You come in with a kid's six-month working visa. You get the same rights as I do. You get the employment protection, all the rest of it minimum wages. When the government puts up minimum wages, you, as an outsider coming in to do six months work in Australia as a kid, you'll get a wage increase as well.
Marc Reader:And I think they just need to do that and, I just think, to take it. It's such a good country, it's such a great and dynamite industry that you're in and you do such a damn good job of it. I'm talking about the shipping in of everything, the creating of your own isolated resorts, electricity, sewage, bridge sewage and fresh water production all of those things. It's just an extraordinary thing that's being done and um, and my last thing would be to stop bloody building new islands. You've got over 1,000 of them. Don't do this. What's happening in front of Hoof and Fushi at the moment is quite extraordinary. I had a guest out there at the pavilion who sent me a video and they're building this island out the back there. You're just looking at these. They don't need to put an island out the front there. There's so many empty islands. This island. They're not reclaiming islands, they're making islands. Reclaiming sounds like there was one there in the first place. It wasn't. It's called a lagoon Nabil. It was underwater.
Aisha:Yeah. I think the message is loud and clear.
Nabeel:right, we have the same sentiment, and that was one of the you know, these sort of you know issues are one of the main reasons we came up with our NGO is to hear from you know experts and passionate people from abroad who has worked their life in the mod is to build up what we have here, and this is why we introduced this podcast as well. Right, so we keep on talking about these things and hopefully some people listen to us and take some actions there.
Marc Reader:Well, thank you very much for your time. I know you want me to go to Bill. Let me say something.
Rifaa:In.
Marc Reader:Australia. I think it was about 20 years ago. The Prime Minister got onto the television and he said have one for mum, have one for dad and one for the country. In other words, have three children and the third child that popped along. They got lots of benefits at home. Unfortunately, the Australian government sent them a cheque for $2,500 or $5,000. And of course, everybody just went out and bought a new TV. But if they did something for an extra child, develop your own people. It's an absolutely terrific country. I'm excited to whenever I'm having to go there. It is an exciting country, exciting people, an exciting industry and you've got huge plans. The economic zone, which we haven't gone into, is a wonderful thing and you're about to open up the new Velna Airport what do you call it? Terminal at Long Pass, and I think all of these things are going to help. And the terminal for the seaplanes is exceptional. That alone lifted the brand of the Maldives. And don't go for quantity, go for quality tourists. You know, charging rich people extra is not necessarily the way to go.
Nabeel:Thank you so much, Mark. We hope to get you on once again to discuss more.
Rifaa:Thank you for joining us on Maldives Uncovered the Sunnyside podcast by Destination Future. We hope today's episode has sparked new ideas and given you valuable insight into the moldis as a leading travel destination. Don't forget to subscribe, stay connected with our community and be part of the conversation. Until next time, keep exploring and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the world of tourism.
