Hussain Afeef
Chairman, Crown Company
One of the pioneers of the Maldives tourism industry, businessman Hussain Afeef now oversees such leading resorts as Conrad Maldives, Rangali Island and Veligandu Island as co-founder and chairman of developer, investor and operator Crown Company. Here he talks about the challenges of setting up the country's tourism industry out of nothing, investing in Malé's new state-of-the-art hospital and creating the world's first undersea restaurant
When you first started looking into making the Maldives a tourism destination in the 1970s did you think it would ever become what it is today?

It was two of my friends who really wanted to start tourism and I happened to be there with them – that's how I came in. So no, definitely not. We couldn't see where we would be. We thought we were just doing something small but it's truly amazing what has happened.


What were some of the challenges?

Everything was a challenge: you are on an island, you have no infrastructure, no boats, no communication. We had one or two flights landing because we had a very small airport. Our communication with the rest of the world was via Morse code – when we wanted to send a message even just to bring over a tourist we had to send a Morse code message to Sri Lanka. Our embassy would take it to the telegraphic office in Colombo and send it to the tour operator and then the reply would come back through the same channels. The country had maybe four or five mechanised boats at that time. We had no vegetables: no tomatoes, potatoes… We had a ship coming in once every two months or so bringing rice, sugar, flour – the basic staples.


How did you overcome some of these challenges?

Once tourism started, within a year or two the government was very clever and really moved on communication. It didn't take the next step to phone lines, but skipped straight to satellite, which was a fantastic decision and resulted in us having better communication than most of the countries around us. As tourists came in, we had more needs and we had ships coming in more often. Then in 1980 they opened a new airport, which resulted in this expansion of tourism. The government had five-year masterplans that it kept on implementing, so tourism went from Malé to the next atoll and so on. That's how the whole thing grew.


What gave you this idea to make tourism the most profitable sector within the Maldives economy?

It was an Italian traveller who came to the Maldives with my friend. He was a person who could bring tourism – he was in the travel business himself – and he said: "Why don't you build on these islands and we can bring some tourists?" Then we started to build and it went from one island to another…

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"You'll recover your investment in tourism in eight to nine years. It's another reason why people should come and invest here"
How did you get the word out?

The Italian was the one who brought in visitors – there were a lot of Italians coming in at the beginning. Then another resort called Bandos opened and we had the Scandinavians coming in because they were already going to Sri Lanka. It had already had tourism for more than ten years when we started, so there were people flying into Sri Lanka directly. That's how the word got out.


What makes the Maldives special for visitors?

It's the uniqueness. This "one-island, one-resort" concept doesn't exist anywhere else. They find a lot of privacy and the peace they need to have on a holiday.


The Maldives' tourism sector could be compared to what Dubai was a while ago – when it was just desert and all of sudden a city came to life. Do you think there are future opportunities for knowledge-sharing and business partnerships between the UAE and the Maldives' tourism sector?

Yes, I'm sure. A lot of things we do can also be done there. And because Dubai is such a creative business base it could provide a lot of backup industry for the tourism industry here. Now we import so many things from them – these could be brought in in bulk and manufactured or packaged here.


As a successful businessman in the Maldives, could you talk about the return on investment here in the Maldives?

Now you'll recover your investment in tourism in eight to nine years, which is very good. It's another reason why people should come and invest here.

"What makes us different is we really give value for money"
Can you foresee any niche markets that have not yet been tapped in the Maldives?

We could have health retreats, which could be detox places or even places where people can rest and recuperate after big operations.


You've already been looking into that with the development of the Tree Top Health hospital. Could you elaborate on what that development means for the country and tourism?

The foremost reason we went into hospitals is because we thought the country really needed a good hospital of an international standard. The whole world looks up to us and sees our resorts as an inspiration, but we couldn't say that about our health sector. When we have so many foreigners coming in, we also have to provide them with good healthcare. It creates confidence in the guests who come to the Maldives – if something happens, they know there are facilities that can take care of them. We had Maldivians going out of the country for treatment and it's a big drain on foreign currency. Somebody who needed any kind of medical attention that wasn't available had to go out of the country, stay in a hotel and pay a lot of money. And if somebody had to have chemotherapy or something, they would have to take another person with them – so maybe even the money earner of the family had to be stuck in another country for four or five weeks.


Will the new hospital facilities also play a role in medical tourism?

I think it will evolve into that. The medical tourism sector is very competitive. In India and Thailand they have it in a big way and costs are much cheaper there. Maybe we could compete with them on rates in the hospital, but outside you're going to be staying somewhere and you have to pay the Green Tax, goods and services tax… Ultimately, we might have to make adjustments.


One of Crown Company's strategic partners is resort management firm Crown and Champa Resorts (CCR), a brand known throughout the Maldives for taking care of Maldivians. Could you talk a bit about the corporate social responsibility initiatives behind CCR?

We were individually managing resorts and we came to the conclusion that we should create CCR. One of the first steps we took was to educate our staff. We gave them full salary, service charge – all the benefits – then we sent them to the hotel school in Malé. Then they went to Malaysia and went on to do a second year, third year, even a master's. We have sent off around 150 people in different ways – on accounting courses, front office courses – and have created a big base of talent. They took over from the foreigners on those levels who were here.

Around 60% of the staff are Maldivians. What value do you think that adds to the brand, both for visitors and for the local community?

It gives a Maldivian flavour to it. Most of the people you have met I'm sure have been very happy and that's our main job – to keep them happy. We aim to stimulate them and keep them hungry – to work better and be passionate about their work.


From a visitor's point of view, what makes Crown properties special and unique compared to other properties in the Maldives, especially for GCC visitors?

What makes us different is that we really give value for money. GCC visitors are well taken care of. We have halal food on the menus. We try to give them the privacy they require – we have small resorts where they can go, we have different restaurants…


You have the first underwater restaurant in the world…

We have the first underwater restaurant and on another island we have the world's largest underwater restaurant at the moment. If they want to go on excursions, we have good boats, they can go sailing… We have water sports, even for children – there is something for everybody. Our resorts have very good children's facilities – there is no danger from animals and they can run around freely.
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"We want to have quality. In five years, if nothing else, we'll be much better than we are now"
Where do you see the brand going in the next five years?

We are not planning ahead so much. We are trying to be more realistic and trying to look after what we have better, not just accumulating numbers. We want to have quality. In five years, if nothing else, we'll be much better than we are now. Normally one would say that in five years we will have 20 more hotels, but I wouldn't want to say that. We will surely have better hotels and a better standard than what we have now. That's our main goal. And if good opportunities come up, I'm sure we will take them. We are already building another three resorts – and the first underwater suite as well.
A U M Fawzy, CEO of Trans Maldivian Airways (TMA)
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Jonas Amstad, General Manager, LUX* South Ari Atoll
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Ibthishama Ahmed Saeed, General Manager, Gan International Airport
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Ahmed Zuhoor, CEO, STELCO
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Haris Mohamed, Acting Managing Director, Visit Maldives
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Moosa Zameer, Minister of Tourism
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