From Stars to Sustainability: An Integrated Analysis of Sustainable Practices and Environmental Policies in Maldives Resorts

The present work analyzed sustainability practices and environmental policies in the Maldives’ tourism sector, focusing on resorts classified using star ratings. Using a mixed-method approach, we examined sustainability reports from 133 resorts, analyzing textual and visual content to identify reporting patterns. For both the thematic and visual analyses, we used OpenAI’s GPT-4 custom models, available on the ChatGPT Pro platform. The results revealed significant differences in how sustainability was communicated and implemented across the resort categories: six-star resorts promoted sustainability as part of a luxury experience, emphasizing environmental branding and exclusivity; five-star resorts combined operational sustainability with attention to customer satisfaction and employee welfare; and lower-rated resorts prioritized resource efficiency, waste management, and community-based practices. These findings emphasize the need for comprehensive sustainability adoption across all resort categories to address the Maldives’ unique environmental challenges. This study contributes to understanding sustainable tourism in small island nations, highlighting the need for consistent, transparent sustainability reporting standards aligned with international frameworks. It also offers policy recommendations to improve the environmental stewardship of the Maldivian tourism industry, essential for its long-term ecological and economic sustainability.