Pioneering Islamic tourism in Maldives: toward creation of first Shariah compliant resort to become global Islamic tourism hub

Maldives is a tourism driven economy, which contributes more than one fourth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While tourism sector supplies over 70% of the foreign exchange earnings to the country, one third of the government revenue is generated from this sector. Tourism is also known as the leading employment generator in the country. The objective of this paper is to formulate ways in which Maldives could pioneer Islamic tourism and to create the Islamic tourism strategies which the country will adopt. This is a qualitative research where primary data analyzed are tourism related laws and guidelines issued in Maldives and in different parts of the world and the secondary data analyzed are from newspapers, journals and books on the subject. It is anticipated that this paper will assist the government of Maldives to understand the strategies that could be adopted in implementing Islamic tourism.