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Soneva to again shake up Maldives tourism with two new concept resorts

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Back in the early 1990s, Sonu Shivdasani and his wife Eva built their ‘home’, Soneva Fushi on the deserted island of Kunfunadhoo in the Maldives. Inspired by the couple’s intensely personal vision of a locally-crafted villa and environmentally responsible lifestyle, Soneva Fushi opened its shores in 1995 as the first ‘castaway’ resort in the Maldives, pioneering a trend for back-to-nature luxury holidays.

With the resort located in the central Baa atoll, Soneva established a blueprint for barefoot luxury holidays in the Maldives and around the world, with several firsts to its name: the Maldives’ first integrated waste management centre, first to introduce a two percent carbon levy to offset carbon emissions, and the first Art and Glass studio in the Maldives.

In December 2016, the world-leading luxury resort group opened its second resort in the Maldives, expanding Sonu and Eva’s own brand of luxury tourism and their environmentally responsible lifestyle, SLOW LIFE.

“Soneva Fushi is the jungle and the beach. At Soneva Jani, it’s the lagoon,” Sonu, who serves as the Chairman and CEO of Soneva, says, in an exclusive interview with Maldives Insider.

The Fresh in the Garden restaurant at Soneva Fushi. PHOTO/ SONEVA

In less than a year, Soneva Jani has created a lot of buzz amongst luxury travellers with several exciting features such as retractable roofs and water slides. It has also been named the Best Over-the-Top Luxury hotel of the year by Jetsetter.com.

With the extraordinary success of his latest brainchild, Sonu seems unstoppable. He is already looking to again shake up the Maldives increasingly competitive tourism and hospitality market with two new openings over the next three years.

But these new resorts will be nothing like the offerings the Maldives has seen so far.

Sonu says the brand new resorts will introduce two different concepts that “don’t exist in the Maldives today”. They will, however, complement the group’s offerings at its existing resorts in the Maldives, Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani, he adds.

“[The two new properties] will be a luxury experience, but different to what you have here at Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani,” the Indian-British hotelier says.

Sonu, who was instrumental in transforming the Maldives from a three-star diving destination to the ultra-luxury island paradise that it is today, expects the new resorts to be located in an hour or an hour and a half speedboat ride from Soneva Fushi as well.

“It’s really like a circle that’s an hour or an hour and a half from Soneva Fushi,” he says.

“That’s also one of the requirements we had when we were looking to develop Soneva Jani. We can use the infrastructure here [at Soneva Fushi] and the overheads to support our expansion.”

Aerial view of Soneva Jani, the newest property of Soneva. PHOTO/ SONEVA

Soneva Fushi inspires the imagination with 65 spacious beachfront villas, ranging in size from one to nine bedrooms, hidden amongst dense foliage. Highlights of the resort include the open-air Cinema Paradiso, counting Saturn’s rings in a high-tech observatory, home-made chocolate and ice-cream rooms, five hundred wines to choose from and nine dining options.

If the experiences are magical, the philosophy is simple: No news, no shoes. No pretensions either.

The iconic resort has bagged several international awards for eco-friendly tourism and green initiatives, including the 2017 Green Hotelier Award for the Asia Pacific region and the Sustainable Hotel Award by the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP). It has also secured a spot in the Gold List compiled by Condé Nast Traveler China as the Best Hotel in the Maldives and amongst the best resorts in the world in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards 2017.

Inspired by the Sanskrit word Jani, which means wisdom, Soneva Jani is located in a 5.6-kilometre private lagoon in the northern Noonu atoll. The resort, which encompasses a collection of 24 overwater villas and one island villa, spans five islands surrounded by pure white beaches, covered in rich tropical vegetation, offering the ultimate in privacy and luxury.

Soneva also operates a luxury yacht in the Maldives, Soneva in Aqua, and a resort in Thailand, Soneva Kiri.

Featured photo: Ibrahim Asad

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Feydhoo Hall opens at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives as new event space

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Dusit International, one of Thailand’s leading hotel and property development companies, has announced the opening of Feydhoo Hall, a landmark event venue at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives, redefining the possibilities for meetings, celebrations, and destination events in the Maldives.

Designed to bring scale, flexibility, and creativity to island gatherings, Feydhoo Hall represents a bold step forward in positioning the Maldives as a dynamic destination for conferences, weddings, and large-scale social occasions.

Feydhoo Hall offers a versatile event complex designed to accommodate a wide range of gatherings, from corporate meetings and conferences to weddings and social celebrations.

At its core is the 390 sqm Main Hall, capable of hosting:

  • Up to 300 guests in theatre-style setup
  • Up to 240 guests for dining and banquet-style events
  • Up to 200 guests for cocktail-style receptions
  • Up to 144 guests in cluster-round configuration

Enhancing the flexibility of the venue are additional dedicated spaces, including:

  • A 110 sqm Veranda Terrace, ideal for welcome receptions, breakout sessions, and pre-event gatherings, accommodating up to 100 guests for cocktail-style events.
  • A spacious 1,000 sqm Lawn Space, perfect for large-scale outdoor celebrations, destination weddings, and open-air events, accommodating up to 400 guests for cocktail receptions and up to 350 guests for dining setups.
  • The 55 sqm Ekugai Meeting Room, designed for smaller meetings and executive sessions, accommodating up to 30 guests in theatre or dining setup and 24 guests in cluster-round format.

Together, these integrated spaces create a seamless indoor-outdoor event experience, allowing planners to design dynamic and personalised event journeys.

True to the dusitD2 brand’s lifestyle-driven philosophy, Feydhoo Hall introduces a fresh approach to meetings and events — where productivity meets creativity in an inspiring island setting.

The venue offers flexible meeting formats designed to suit different event needs, including:

  • Half-Day Meeting Package (4 hours) — ideal for focused sessions, executive meetings, and creative workshops.
  • Full-Day Meeting Package (8 hours) — designed for immersive conferences, extended workshops, and large-scale corporate gatherings.

These thoughtfully structured packages provide planners with the flexibility to create impactful and seamless experiences, whether hosting intimate strategy sessions or dynamic full-day events.

Located just seven minutes by speedboat from Velana International Airport, dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives combines accessibility with vibrant lifestyle energy, offering event planners and guests a rare balance between convenience and tropical escape.

With the introduction of Feydhoo Hall, the resort strengthens its position as a versatile destination — not only for leisure travellers but also for international conferences, creative retreats, luxury weddings, and large-scale social celebrations seeking something refreshingly different in the Maldives.

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BBM expands retail presence with new Hulhumalé outlet

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Bestbuy Maldives (BBM) opened a new wholesale store in Hulhumalé Phase 2 on Monday.

The outlet is located on the ground floor of Lot 20286, Nirolhu Magu, and is intended to improve access to BBM’s imported goods for residents of Hulhumalé Phase 2 and for businesses operating in the area.

According to the company, the opening forms part of its plan to expand services closer to customers in line with population growth in Hulhumalé.

With the opening of the new store, BBM’s full range of imported and distributed products will be available at the Hulhumalé Phase 2 location. These include consumer goods from international brands such as Lifebuoy, Vaseline and Unilever.

The store will also stock wholesale food products from brands including Daily, Cavin’s and Redman.

BBM has supplied goods to resorts, hotels and retail outlets across the Maldives for several years.

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Ataraxis Grand & Spa hosts integrated work-and-dive corporate retreat in Fuvahmulah

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Ataraxis Grand & Spa recently hosted a week-long, closed corporate offsite in Fuvahmulah for a US-based artificial intelligence company, highlighting the island’s growing suitability for integrated work-and-experience retreats. The retreat brought a group of 36 international professionals to the property, which was reserved exclusively for the programme.

Designed as a private company offsite, the stay combined structured daily work sessions with guided diving and beginner-friendly surf experiences, creating a balanced format that blended focused collaboration with physical reset.

A notable component of the programme was dive training and certification. During the retreat, 17 participants completed their Open Water certification, while a further six undertook the Advanced Open Water course, with training and dives scheduled alongside work sessions as part of the integrated itinerary.

Throughout the week, participants worked on-site using dedicated shared spaces supported by reliable high-speed internet, allowing meetings, informal collaboration and scheduled activities to take place within a single, uninterrupted environment. This setup enabled teams to move seamlessly between work periods and organised ocean activities without leaving the property.

Fuvahmulah’s natural and operational advantages formed a key part of the retreat’s appeal. As one of the Maldives’ largest inhabited islands, it offers immediate access to pelagic dive sites, internationally recognised shark diving and surf breaks suitable for instruction, alongside the infrastructure required to support extended group stays.

The offsite reflects a growing preference among technology and knowledge-sector teams for small-scale retreats that prioritise concentrated work environments and team cohesion over traditional conference formats. Such programmes typically involve longer stays and higher per-capita spend, aligning with sustainable, quality-driven tourism models.

The retreat also demonstrates how locally operated properties such as Ataraxis Grand & Spa are supporting this shift by delivering unified environments where accommodation, workspaces, connectivity and curated experiences operate as a single programme rather than separate services.

As organisations continue to explore alternative formats for strategy sessions, team resets and creative offsites, Ataraxis Grand & Spa’s experience positions Fuvahmulah as an increasingly viable destination for integrated corporate retreats.

Ataraxis Grand & Spa offers work-and-dive retreat programmes in Fuvahmulah that combine accommodation, dedicated workspaces, high-speed connectivity and organised diving and surfing.

Further information on retreat formats and dive-inclusive stays is available via the Ataraxis Grand & Spa website.

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