Expert writer on the Maldives: Introducing Manta Media Maldives

I've launched a new website specialising in news and travel advice about the Maldives. Check out Manta Media Maldives for thoroughly fact-checked articles, 100% written by humans who know the Maldives like nobody else! 

I lived in the Maldives full-time for five years and have been writing about the Maldives for 15 years. That's why I'm widely regarded as the top foreign travel writer specialising in writing about the Maldives. Thousands of my articles about the Maldives have been published across print and web, from local publications to top tier international magazines, guidebooks and websites. They include a BBC Travel article debunking myths about the Maldives' 'Sea of Stars' that I'm thrilled is still the second most read article on BBC Travel - over a year after publication! 

I also recently enjoyed rewriting the guide and creating a lot of brand-new pages for US News and World Report's Maldives Guide. 

While plenty of other travel writers drop into the Maldives on press trips or for holidays, then skip off home to write about it, I'm the only foreign travel journalist who has lived in the Maldives long-term. I was based in Male' and Hulhumale, which were perfect locations for easy access to speedboats, seaplanes and ferries taking me to resorts or inhabited islands. 

Manta Media Maldives

As useful as press trips can be for writers (particularly those who can't afford resort rates in comparison to the compensation they get for their articles), press trips barely let you even skim the surface of a destination, no matter how many resorts you visit, because they are highly contrived experiences organised by resorts or tourist boards. So you only see what they want you to see. 

They probably won't tell you if a resort used to be a graveyard or a leper colony. Or if the owner is likely to have his assets (including the island you're staying on and recommending to tourists) seized by an international court at any moment. But if you've lived in the Maldives and you mingle with Maldivians who aren't paid to say certain things, then you know. I choose carefully how I say things, and perhaps also which places I omit from my recommendations. In short, it means I'm fully aware of the ethics of writing about the Maldives, as well as knowing the islands in depth.

I'm lucky enough to have lived with Maldivians, established lifelong friendships and contacts, and toured almost all the resorts in the Maldives dozens of times over (as well as countless island communities). I find repeat visits to the same islands will reveal a lot, and help you to understand the nuances of a brand better. Resorts can also change a lot from year to year depending upon their management. 

As a travel journalist whose niche is the Maldives, everything I've described above equates to an unparalleled level of understanding and insights into the Maldives. I'll be eternally grateful for my experiences and for the fact that I'm able to spend extended periods in the Maldives each year. I never stop learning, nor trying to tell the untold stories and unseen angles that go beyond the typical narrative about the Maldives. Some of the stories or facts I drop into articles have never been written about before in English, such as insider secrets, folklore, or Maldivian Oral History. 

I've been reluctant to blow my own trumpet about this until recently because I'm not a particularly brash person. But I've been reminded by several of my peers (as well as Maldivian friends, resort managers and other tourism professionals) just how rare it is to have my depth of knowledge about visiting the Maldives. And that there are others out there with a fraction of this experience of the Maldives who are shouting about it from the rooftops - so why not!

So, I decided to put my knowledge to good use by launching Manta Media Maldives. It's named after the media company I founded in Male', Maldives, in 2010 - Manta Media. As an offshoot of my company, it focuses on the travel news and advice that I might not write about in major magazines and websites because it's more current for people booking holidays in the Maldives within the typical timeframe of researching, then booking, their holiday. 

Manta Media Maldives is not meant to be an exhaustive list of everything travel-related that's happening in the Maldives; our stories are curated. I've worked on enough Maldive-focused publications in the past (as editor of Maldives Traveller, editor of TMA Inflight, editor of TNMV, etc.) to know travellers really don't care who just got appointed head of Food and Beverages at a resort. They want inspirational and practical content that can help them pick the right island resort in the Maldives. And hopefully that's what you'll find if you check it out at www.mmmaldives.com. Thank you!