Maldives prepares for Royal honeymoon

The Royal honeymoon website has been launched at www.williamkatehoneymoon.com. To encourage Prince William and Catherine Middleton to visit the Maldives on their honeymoon, the government has sent them an official invitation. The invitation was sent to the royal couple last week and is awaiting a reply according to the Maldivian Tourism Minister, Dr. Mariyam Zulfa.

The invitation reflects not just the Maldivian people’s admiration for the Royal couple but the very close economic, cultural and political ties that the Maldives shares with Britain. If Prince William and Kate were to come they would joinover 80,000 British tourists who visited the islands last year on honeymoon or on holiday.

Like Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the current President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed went to public school in Britain and then on to Liverpool John Moores university. Prince William and Catherine Middleton both attended St Andrews university in Scotland where they first met.

The Maldives also enjoy a shared history with Britain which would be of particular interest to Prince William. This dates back to the establishment of a Royal Air Force base on the island of Gan in the southernmost Addu Atoll in 1948. In 2008 Prince William received his ‘wings’ from his father Prince Charles and is now a fully operational Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Pilot situated in Wales. The Prince is known as Flight Lieutenant Wales in the Royal Air Force.

Britain stopped being responsible for the Maldives defence in 1965 after independence but the Royal Air Force base on Gan continued to be used until 1976.