The recognition for outstanding innovative work in the marine environment has been twice achieved, with Six Senses Laamu crowned 'Bright Ideas in Travel' for 2024 by Condé Nast Traveller as well as securing the 'Best Culture, Travel & Lifestyle Environmental Initiative' category in the Country & Town House Future Icons Awards.
One of the events that have been part and parcel of the celebrations ongoing is this annual gala Future Icons Awards coming off-and what better way to appreciate their productive hunt in finding such visionaries who would charge with overseeing the face-to-create visions of sustainability within heart, the project takes the form of setting up of Laamu's Shell for Six Senses Laamu, to be preserved within a mode of paying back what has been taken and had done with excellence by successfully gathering categories.
While doing so, it also identifies SHELL and MUI as a solution for changing the solution to the most pertinent environmental challenges facing the travel industry. Similarly, it has been regarded by adding Bright Ideas in Travel by Condé Nast Traveller.
SHELL is a first luxury hospitality and marine conservation collaboration launched in March 2023. It forms the heart of the MUI team; it comprises marine biologists from Six Senses Laamu who work in partnership with three leading NGOs. The NGOs include The Manta Trust, Blue Marine Foundation, and the Olive Ridley Project. It stretches over 5,952 square feet and houses numerous cutting-edge research programs.
Shell has discovered so far 138 individual manta rays in waters around Laamu, while it has also developed the first underwater contactless ultrasound scanner to study manta ray reproductive habits. It is the first time globally where 'Eyes on the Reef' project will involve non-stop 24/7 monitoring of manta rays at cleaning stations.
The team recorded 1,383 hatchlings during the period of January up to November 2024 on the beaches of this resort. It has among the most extensive turtle identification databases found in the Maldives-over 670 unique identified turtles in Laamu Atoll. Due to advocacy for the site, Gaadhoo is declared, on December 2021, as one of the important nesting sites that will become a Marine Protected Area for the turtles to nest.
Results for the monitoring program of coral reefs at Six Senses Laamu reflected impressively since the percentage of coverage on house reefs, with regard to coral, had increased to 55%. Meanwhile, a research team that started studying patterns regarding the spawning of corals registered as many as 36 genera of coral on house reefs and, overall, up to 47 different genera of corals around Laamu Atoll.
Shell, from research fuels impacting conservation that includes campaigns, for example, #ProtectMaldivesSeagrass which conserved more than 910,000 square meters of seagrass meadows in 37 resorts, this place has an interactive gallery, LED floors and view booths, with rich gadgetry to entertain visitors across all generations, amidst a marine conserving theme.
In fact, Six Senses Laamu was a very fundamental science, conservation, and luxury tourism project further shaping the vision of sustainable travel in the Maldives. For such awards, it would need to be said that it goes to indicate that a resort stay protects marine life but yet brings an enriching experience.
