Volume 8, number 1, August 2020

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    Experiences and concerns during the COVID 19 pandemic a qualitative research with employees in the tourism sector of the Maldives
    (The Research Centre, Maldives National University, 2020-08) Adam, Aminath Shafiya; Riyaz, Aminath; Mohamed, Shazla; Sobir, Rania; Abdul Muhaimin, Fathimath Nasiha; Sudha, Aminath; Shadiya, Fathimath
    The Maldives is a small country, solely, dependent on the tourism sector for its economic growth. The first known case of COVID‑19 in the Maldives was reportedly a tourist from Italy in March 2020. As a result, the government implemented an overseas travel ban. Presumably, the effect of overseas travel ban was inevitable, which resulted in a complete shutdown of resorts. This paper covers a component from a research project conducted March-May 2020, by the Ministry of Economic Development with technical assistance from UNDP, as a rapid livelihood impact assessment of COVID‑19 in the Maldives.The data reported in this paper is concentrated on the qualitative dataset collected to investigate the experiences and concerns of resort employees at the onset of COVID‑19 pandemic. A total of 31 participants across 13 resorts were randomly selected. The data were generated through in-depth interviews which lasted 40-60 minutes either by conference calls or Zoom meetings based on preferred choice of the participants. Detailed notes were made during the conversation and were analysed thematically using the topics from the structured interview guide from the rapid livelihood assessment. The findings highlight the employees’ heightened anxiety about the exposure to COVID‑19 and its possible impact on their health and safety. The findings also highlight the economic impact on the resort workers because of the restrictive pay packages offered by the resorts in dealing with the sudden closure of the resorts in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The findings have useful inputs and implications on future strategic plans of small countries such as the Maldives that depend predominantly on a volatile tourism sector susceptible to external shocks such as the unforeseen COVID‑19 pandemic.
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    Survey sampling in the time of social distancing experiences from a quantitative research in the wake of COVID 19 pandemic
    (The Research Centre, Maldives National University, 2020-08) Riyaz, Aminath; Musthafa, Hawwa Shiuna; Abdul Raheem, Raheema; Moosa, Sheena
    This paper explores the practical difficulties of conducting an online quantitative survey across the Maldives during the COVID‑19 pandemic response to study people’s values in the midst of a crisis, and addresses crisis experience and perception, value orientation, personality traits, social cohesion, and trust in relevant authorities. This paper reports on the methodological component and not on the survey findings. A stratified systematic random sampling approach was used, with stratification on urbanrural clusters (cities and other islands), gender, and age of the population to recruit at least 400 from the urban and 600 participants from the rural communities. To overcome the practical difficulty of accessing households due to restrictive measures across the Maldives and lockdown status in the greater Male’ area, the latest voters’ registry was used to select every nth participant as the sample frame. Participants were recruited through phone calls, and survey instrument shared via social media, achieving a response rate of 87%.The practical difficulties with the sampling approach were different in urbanrural clusters, ranging from securing the phone numbers for prospective participants, nonresponse to phone calls, discrepancies in internet access, and the lack of control on whether the intended participant was in fact the person completing the survey. To overcome these challenges, a mix of probability and non-probability sampling was utilised ensuring not more than one participant was recruited from any household, while adhering to the stratification of gender and age. The statistical findings on the validity and reliability of the data show that the recruited sample is representative of the population. This outcome highlights the adaptability and applicability of established quantitative research methods to a geographically dispersed small island developing state, under nonconventional situations.