Minister of Tourism Abdulla Mausoom, on Tuesday, revealed that the safety requirements for tourists holidaying in Maldives will be slackened following the vaccination process for COVID-19.
He made this statement in a special interview with American channel CNBC, discussing the effects of the global pandemic on the island nation’s tourism sector.
Despite the challenges for tourism this year, the minister expressed his hopes that 2021 will be a very successful year for tourism, based on the influx of tourists following the island nation’s border reopening in July.
The restrictions on international travel left Maldives' heavily tourism reliant economy in an extremely vulnerable state. In mid-April, the World Bank projected that Maldives would be the worst-hit economy in the South Asian region due to the pandemic.
However, the number of tourist arrivals has seen an upward trend since the border reopening, although they have yet to hit pre-pandemic values.
The increase in arrivals have heightened since October, with the country hitting the 100,000 tourist mark following the border reopening during last week.
Experts predict that the number of arrivals will hit 500,000 within this week, since the demand has increased significantly with the peak season.
Mausoom stated that the numbers have rekindled the hope that Maldives can attract 1.5 million tourists within the next year.
“We’re hoping that the restrictions on travel can be lifted shortly so transportation can go back to normal”, Mausoom said.
He further added that 75 percent of all tourist establishments are now operational, and they all place a special importance on providing services in the most environment-friendly manner possible.
According to Mausoom, the government aimed to ensure the conservation and protection of Maldives’ unique environment in developing the tourism sector moving forward.
Maldives reopened its borders to international passengers on July 15, after nearly four months since the state halted issuing on-arrival visas on March 27.
Guesthouses in the Male region, which completely opened up on Monday, report being fully booked from present-day onwards till the end of January.
Based on the projection that Maldives is on the road to reaching the 0.5 million mark next week, for tourism arrivals across the year 2020, Mihaaru News speculated that numbers are set to return to its usual record-breaking pace, in the near future.
It should be noted that in 2020, Maldives welcomed 1.7 million tourists. The island nation hit the 1 million target for the first time in 2013 with 1.2 million tourist arrivals.
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