Diva Maldives has rebranded itself as 'Lux* Maldives' in a move aimed at making a difference in the hotel industry and providing a unique experience to its guests.
General Manager Dominik Ruhl told journalists and tour operators during a ceremony held at Traders Hotel's Azure restaurant yesterday that "not much is happening" at the "saturated" five star tourism market in the Maldives.
"Resorts tended to define themselves in terms of the hardware, which we all have – villas, pools architecture. They are all fairly similar – but people don't come to the Maldives to sleep in a 1950s boudoiur. We don't want to follow the same thoughtless patterns we learned in hotel school some 20 years ago," he said.
Ruhl identified the problem with the hotels and resorts in Maldives as the "slow development of the industry" which makes the hotels and resorts "look and feel the same".
"We realised that in order to be different, we have to take certain drastic steps. Luxury is over-rated, so we wanted to give our clients something they don’t expect from a five-star resort based in the Maldives. We want to help them celebrate life in its simplest form," he said.
Among the new features to be introduced, ice cream carts selling homemade low-fat ice cream will go on around the island, fitness instructors will hold outdoor exercises and guests will be exposed to the "Lux-style" of traditional Bodu Beru performances.
Lux* Maldives, as it will be known from today, has imported roasted coffee beans that will undergo grinding on the island and made into its own brand of coffee to be served from a reception-turned-coffeehouse in the lobby complete with newspapers and Kindle e-readers loaded with the latest magazines and papers.
The resort is also collaborating with a company called Carbon Footprint to offset its carbon emissions by year-end and looking at alternative green energy sources such as wind and solar. It will also begin using homemade still and sparkling bottled water to avoid having to dispose of 170,000 plastic bottles a year.
The parent brand – Naïade, now Lux* Island Resorts – has also rebranded its other properties in the Indian Ocean.
