Tourism Algorithms
Every operator believes they understand their online ranking — until they don’t. A guesthouse offers good service, keeps rooms clean, maintains a 4.7 or 4.8 score, receives grateful reviews from guests… and then quietly slips from page 1 to page 2. Or from page 2 to page 5.
Tourism Algorithms
There is a silent force shaping every island’s tourism economy today — a force more powerful than price, reviews, marketing, or even seasonality. Visibility. Not the visibility of your beach. Not the visibility of your island. But the visibility of your listing inside a digital marketplace controlled by algorithms. Before
Tourism Price Wars
There’s a phrase guesthouse owners repeat every low season: “I don’t want to drop my price — but I have no choice.” Across islands like Ukulhas, Thoddoo, Rasdhoo, Mathiveri, Bodufolhudhoo, and Feridhoo, the same pattern appears every year: * Prices slide * Margins disappear * Everyone matches everyone else * And the entire
Island Tourism Economics
There is a quiet truth inside small‑island tourism that rarely appears in textbooks, policies, or development studies: Most guesthouses, cafés, and small tourism businesses operate at a loss during low season — and they keep operating anyway. From the outside, this looks irrational. From the inside, it makes complete sense.
Tourism Seasonality
In most hotel management textbooks, seasonality is described as a gentle curve. Demand softens, pricing adjusts, occupancy dips, and hotels use slow periods for training and maintenance. A predictable, manageable cycle. But on small islands like Ukulhas, Mathiveri, Thoddoo, Feridhoo, or Rasdhoo, seasonality doesn’t behave like a curve. It
Island Tourism Economics
Most of the hospitality theory used in the Maldives today comes from Western hotel schools: revenue management, yield curves, segmentation, demand pacing, upselling strategy, occupancy thresholds, benchmarking, RevPAR, ADR, GOPPAR. These models work beautifully — in the environments they were designed for. But after 20 years working in Maldives tourism, both
Island Tourism Economics
There’s a pattern I’ve noticed on Ukulhas — and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The environmental sector on this island was built through innovation. The tourism sector today is being built through replication. Same island. Same people. Two completely different approaches — two completely different outcomes.
Island Tourism Economics
And why it happens even when everyone is trying their best. There’s a question I’ve been carrying for years, long before I started writing Ukulhas Unfiltered: How do small islands with so much potential — good people, good service, beautiful reefs — still end up struggling in tourism? Not failing.