Scuba Diving in the Maldives: High-Severity Claims Exposure

Scuba diving is a major component of tourism in the Maldives. Although available data do not demonstrate that serious diving accidents are common relative to the very large number of dives undertaken, there is consistent evidence that a significant number of diving-related emergencies occur regularly and can result in severe injury, death and substantial insurance claims.

Maldivian government data have also identified diving and snorkeling among the activities associated with tourist marine fatalities.

The principal risks include decompression illness, barotrauma, drowning and near-drowning, diver separation in strong currents, and medical events occurring underwater. Repetitive diving over consecutive days is particularly relevant in a destination where multi-dive resort and liveaboard itineraries are common.

From an insurance perspective, the geography of the Maldives can materially affect the management of a serious diving accident. Many incidents occur on resort islands, remote atolls or liveaboards some distance from advanced medical facilities and hyperbaric treatment.

Depending on location, definitive treatment may require a combination of:
• initial oxygen and stabilisation
• marine transfer from the dive site or island
• ground ambulance transport
• transfer to a hyperbaric facility
• repeated recompression treatments
• extended accommodation before return travel
• medical evacuation or repatriation in more severe cases

In severe cases where the time to recompression is particularly important, the location of the accident and access to appropriate transport may materially influence both outcome and claim severity.

For travel insurers and underwriters, the evidence is better interpreted as a recurrent, relatively low-frequency but potentially high-severity exposure, rather than suggesting that serious diving accidents are common among tourists generally.

Assessment of diving risk in the Maldives should therefore consider not only the probability of an accident, but also where an insured may be diving, the availability of recompression facilities, transfer times to definitive care, the type of diving undertaken and the potential cost of managing a serious event in a geographically dispersed island environment.