The challenge of sustainable tourism development in the Maldives: Understanding the social and political dimensions of sustainability Regina Scheyvens Institute of Development Studies, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, PB11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Email: r.a.scheyvens@massey.ac.nz Abstract: Issues of power and politics are central to the development of the tourism sector and its prospects for contributing to sustainable development. This is demonstrated through a case study of the evolution of tourism in the Maldives, a luxury tourism destination where the government has followed a consistent policy of ‘quality tourism’ that has often been cited as a prime example of sustainable tourism. However, recently concerns have been raised about environmental degradation, human rights abuses, connections between the political and economic elite, and huge economic disparities associated with tourism here. Research on sustainable tourism needs to recognise the state’s pivotal role in directing tourism development and consider how states balance the competing interests of other powerful tourism stakeholders. Keywords: Maldives, politics, social sustainability, sustainable development, tourism Introduction Over the past two decades, tourist numbers in the Asia and Pacific regions have soared. Inter- national arrivals have more than doubled from 82 million in 1995 to over 180 million in 2009, generating over US$200 billion (United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 2010: 5).Thus, Asia and the Pacific have overtaken the Americas (North and South) as second only to Europe in terms of both international arrivals and revenue earned from tourism (UNWTO, 2010: 3). This growth in tourism has also led to job creation. Currently, tourism in the region accounts for 8.9% of employment, or 140 million jobs. Tourism is a particularly sig- nificant economic sector in a number of the small island states in the region (McElroy, 2006). Rapid growth of tourism has been actively pursued by many governments, often while simultaneously espousing support for sustain- able development of the tourism sector. Academics, however, are more wary about the prospects for achieving sustainable tourism, bemoaning that the rhetoric of sustainability is often not followed through in practice or, at worst, is used to obscure rather unsustainable development practices (Mowforth and Munt, 2009): ‘Rarely have notions of “sustainability” been interpreted or employed in holistic terms. Rather, sustaining the tourism industry and the resources upon which it depends has appeared all too often to be the major priority’ (Hall and Brown, 2008: 1024). Some stress the need for a holistic approach that balances environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability (see, e.g. Butler, 1991; Sharpley, 2000). Overton (1999) argues that in particular, social elements of sustainability have not been given the promi- nence they deserve. His discussion of social sustainability encompasses issues of power such as the extent to which communities have control over development occurring in their local area. In order to gain deeper insights into why tourism in the region is so often not sustainable in prac- tice, this paper argues that we need to pay greater attention to issues of power, including social and political dimensions of tourism development. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 52, No. 2, August 2011 ISSN 1360-7456, pp148–164 © 2011 The Author Asia Pacific Viewpoint © 2011 Victoria University of Wellington doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01447.x