Hilal's Notes

(This was an assignment given to customer care class by me) I wrote it personally for the purpose of explaining them the concept).

Introduction

The word hospitality strikes to me as being hospitable. In simple context it is how you treat someone. May be where I was born and where I have been raised has a culture of being hospitable to the travelers who visits us from journeys across the globe. I am talking about travelers who voyage on the sea for different reasons. The Maldives is a country which lays on an important position for seafarers.

The travelers from Arabian Peninsula, Africa and Indonesia traveling across the Indian Ocean shall meet a group of small islands in the middle of their journey. The people of these islands are very kind and helpful to who ever who visits them. The basic infrastructure of welcoming travelers and letting them have a rest in the thatched roofing small shelters are something they do for each and every traveler who visits them. The share their food, try to entertain travelers during their short stay within the rings of islands. The result of this humanitarian and well mannered hospitality resulted some of these travelers to retain in the islands for longer periods where some of them had started their lives as the simple Maldivians and were proud to be called as Maldivians. The most interesting this about all this is Maldivians are generous and kind hearted where there was a competition as such within islands to have better kindness offered to Travelers. Even present day some of the islanders say that “if you have water from our wells you will not be able to forget us”.

In general hospitality is a culture which has been practiced for centuries in the Maldives. Today we see the same hospitality as an industry in the Maldives. The Hotel industry in the Maldives started in early seventies with only two resorts on two hundred beds. The reason why Maldives has developed as one of the most admirable destinations in the world today is for the simple hospitable culture we have treasured for us by our forefathers.

The differences between service as our hospitality and Materialistic world

The art of a Maldivian Smile and the gesture from an old grand mother is the valid proof of the service we have extended. As you know a smile is something which can be expensive than the million dollars which has been acquired as materials of the world. Human gestures are a service which we have to give out as treasures today. The materialistic worlds we see are nothing that valuable compared to the way we serve our visitors.

The characters of Hospitality are so genuine where travelers in the past have written about Maldives and the kind gestures which has been extended to them which made their books write about the something of Maldives. This is a fact the inseparable character in extending services in the culture of Maldives in ancient times.

As well the consistency of development and continued mannerism created a natural service environment where the product Maldives marketing in early ages are still named by the Maldives. Yes what I am coming to is the Maldive Fish. Well accepted in south India and Srilanka. If the consistency of behavior on producing fish in a different level today we would not have a market for the fish.

Importance of extending Personal Services

The religion which Maldivians have been practicing gave the Maldives the patience to extend the services on the right moment when a customer needs it. Where services are fresh always with a smile which tender where the receiving end customer feels, “Just personalized for him” when receiving it.

The tradition of Maldives relates to giving attention to the people who visits them. If you travel a rural island and visit a home you will find the people welcomes you and try’s to extend the best facilities they have with them. Giving a soft drink for the modern times and I suppose in olden day it would be a glass of toddy or something which will make the visitor happy about. Every visitor will not leave an island without something given as a complementary gift from them either a fruit or something of use. Where visitors are made hospitable and which even today is practiced in some areas of the Maldives. This type of personal touching activities has given an edge to the people that the visitors do return to them with something from the visitor’s home land. It’s more like a give and get situation. The most interesting happening is no single person will ask the visitor to bring anything for what they did. A pure act of generosity is shown clearly in the Maldives culture.

Good and Bad Services

The manners of the Maldivians are basically in a very moral ground level. The islanders are taught how to recite Holy Quran from an Edhuruge. At the age of 9 most of the kids will know how recite on their own. The manners of Islamic culture have been cultivated in every society of the Maldives. Where people are helpful and regardless of who you see or serve attention is much squared on what they do.