Ministry of Tourism, on Thursday, announced a virtual refresher programme on October 10, targeted towards facilitating low-budget tourism in Maldives.
Based on the positive response for the registration, training and inspections programme held for guesthouses and travel agencies in 2019, the ministry noted that the virtual refresher programme is intended to be run in close collaboration with with island councils to train establishments catering to tourists in inhabited islands.
On the same day, the Ministry will also hold a programme to train dive centres on registration and completing the inspection required for re-resignations.
Tourism Ministry stated that such programmes allow the opportunity for island councils to conduct inspections in a decentralised manner, in addition to providing feasibility and ease of access, when finalising the registration process, to local guesthouses, dive centres and travel agencies.
After a long shutdown period due to the precautionary measures taken amidst the ongoing pandemic, the state had announced that guesthouses will be allowed to reopen on October 15.
In September, Deputy Minister of Tourism Assad Riza stated that the permit for operating guesthouses is granted through a strict set of guidelines due to the current situation posed by the ongoing pandemic.
He requested the cooperation of guesthouse operators and island councils, in particular, to implement the newly introduced guidelines to ensure the safety of island communities.
"As guesthouse businesses restart, the taskforces in islands must also be active and coordinate with HPA (Health Protection Agency) to monitor [the situation] and notify the ministry", he said.
As with numerous countries around the world, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives closed its air and sea borders to tourist arrivals on March 27, halting the issuance of on-arrival visas.
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.
Maldives estimates a shortfall of approximately USD 450 million (MVR 6.9 billion) in foreign currency and a state deficit of MVR 13 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the tourism industry.
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