Asma Abdul Sattar | A Woman of Substance

Foreword

...A few moments with Ms. Asma Abdul Sattar, popularly known as Achu, Marketing Manager of Lily Beach Resort, a 5-star resort hotel in the Maldives.

You are reputed to put in long hours, working non-stop and without a holiday for long periods of time. What is your working day like?

I clock in an average of 14 to 18 hours every day.

Tell us a little bit about your experience in this field

I have worked in tourism for 18 years now. I started at Baros for 2 years (1980 and 1981), mostly in front desk administration. In Gasfinolhu, I was a manager (1982 and 1983); this was a challenge to manage at the time as the bed capacity was only 40.

Then I moved to Meeru Island Resort, where I worked in senior management from 1983 to 1994. During my time there, the resort expanded from 148 beds to 280 beds, and later to a total of 428 beds.

In 1994, I became the Marketing Manager at Lily Beach Resort, which follows a completely new "All-Inclusive" concept, making it a very popular and challenging resort to manage.

What would you consider as difficulties in doing your job, now and in the past?

It is disheartening to train unskilled staff for various departments like reception, reservations, and cashiering, as there is little guarantee of achieving a good result due to the casual attitude of some people.

For instance, some employees leave when they wish. Most of the male staff find it difficult to accept knowledge from a woman, communicate as an equal, and accept me as a colleague.

Looking back, between 1983 and 1990 I have worked in quite demanding circumstances. often inflexible in nature and involving irregular, long hours, coping with unskilled and insufficient staff, heavy numbers of arrivals and departures, difficulties due to incompatible modes of transport, lack of sophisticated devices, computers etc. Further the non adaptable nature of (input into) policy is difficult.

Do you feel that some in the work environment find it difficult to accept a woman as a leader, manager, and teacher?

Some of the staff are eager to learn but do not tend to respect knowledge coming from me (i.e a woman) as worthwhile, perhaps they find it difficult to come to terms with a woman in the same field. However, most of the long standing staff and especially foreign staff do expect, accept and carry out my instructions. Some of the local staff, ie, those who does not accept ignorance as the first hurdle in Education to be overcome has a different attitude. It is encouraging that guests are eager to have lengthy conversations on equality for women, admire and query regarding women's role in jobs, at home and family, their vulnerabilities, social security if any and marvel at how dynamic those few women who are in professional jobs in society are.

What do your duties at Lily Beach Resort involve? What motivates you to do your job so well?

My personal input is attending to correspondence, & communication, making direct contact in Marketing and representing Lily at tourism fairs. My work directly and otherwise increases not only sales but gain greater exposure for the tourism industry and Maldives as a destination. I take pride in my work and envisage fruitful results and work consciously to achieve them. The recognition and inspiration to thrive at Lily makes me happy and motivated; my husband inspires confidence in me.

An achievement for Achu

An Award of Recognition of long-standing service the i from the Ministry, of Tourism in 1997 was a real achievement

Do you feel your staff/those who work with you would see you as a tough woman in a man's job?

Perhaps, when I started, people had seen me as a woman in a man's job, but that has changed over the years, and I, personally, have never felt so, because even then I had foreseen the booming impact the industry would have on the economy, creating jobs and boosting the gross national product, personal incomes, and so on. Throughout, the staff appreciates and had seen me as doing a good job and as a vigorous woman.

What is your opinion as to why the reluctance of women to join the industry?

My personal, and take this as an individual opinion, is that today's female teenagers are unreliable, thus establishments fail to offer responsible jobs. Again, some parents do not appreciate daughters being away from home, especially on Resort Islands. This may be due to parents’ lack of knowledge about the work environment, security standards, etc.

On the other hand, most educated women hoping to join the industry find negligence of most in management, due to, perhaps, lack of communication channels and recognition from the Executive level, frustrating.

From your own personal experience, tell us a little about running a resort

Running a resort is not too difficult now that I have matured and seasoned! I advise always planning ahead, to have not one solution to a problem but three, always upkeep maintenance, enhance hospitality, and services for guests as a priority.

Further, enhance humanitarian aspects, welfare and security of staff in order to sustain their morale in service.

Do you plan to be in tourism in the foreseeable future? Any personal plans? What is the "next" step for you?

Yes, provided I am recognized and nominated to a titled position which I believe I undoubtedly deserve and have worked hard to achieve! I always look forward to a personal enterprise, directly in Tourism, or relevant.

'Next Step': legitimacy to an 'Island' or until then, to continue in a Senior Executive position is my vision for the foreseeable future.

Your ideas on the future of Maldives tourism and increasing the competitiveness of the Maldives tourism product

Tourism is guided by the vision of the pioneers and visioning is done in conjunction with the more concerned government authorities. What we have achieved is excellent and what we shall achieve should be, no doubt, beyond excellence. With the wisdom of the new Master Plan, we should now proceed to implement more dynamic strategies gleaned from the knowledge of the resorts that have continued to impose high standards or have worked with good or adequate standards, to avoid a negative impact.

It is important to sustain the naturally delicate environment both on land and underwater, to control over and excessive development in order to cater to different categories.

Maldives, as a destination, is very competitive, yet we can, with a nationwide joint strategy, achieve a target of GDP, GDP per head of the population, and a reasonable profit margin.

I believe we should look to our culture, to show visitors the real Maldives experience rather than encourage minor enterprises of, say, for instance, fake imported souvenirs and real shark jaws etc; still available, passing on as Maldivian culture. Further, we shall welcome repeaters in a grand manner whereby we should show them our appreciation with our hospitality, that could be in terms of not only a bottle of wine, a fruit basket, or a free excursion instead, perhaps price-wise.