Male’, Maldives – Tourism Minister Abdhulla Mausoom has said today that it is very important to follow the Health Protection Agency’s (HPA) guidelines to bring down Covid-19 numbers in Male’ so that tourism can be restarted in the City.
In a tweet earlier today, Minister Mausoom said that hotels and guesthouses, souvenir shops and other tourist facilities are still unoperational, the owners of such places are facing major losses.
While such establishments have only been denied to operate in Male’, in other Maldivian islands, there are currently 349 tourist facilities operational and serving guests. The Ministry of tourism’s statistics show that this accounts for 33,776 beds at any given time, and ranges among 125 resorts, 189 hotel/guesthouses and 122 safaris, with an additional 5 resorts due to open prior to 2021, adding an extra 914 operational beds.
Tourist arrivals are recovering at an acceptable pace, with more than 59,000 tourists arriving to the country since borders opened in July to finally spend a calm vacation following the chaos brought on by the pandemic.
Tourism Ministry has also established a tourism help desk at Velana International Airports arrival terminal. The purpose of this help desk is to provide information and assistance to the tourists who visit Maldives during this time.
Ministry highlighted that through this counter, all information on Health Protection Agency (HPA) and Tourism Ministry’s rules and regulations set amid the Covid-19 would be available.
HPA has set multiple guidelines for the tourism sector. One such rule is that masks are mandatory in islands with operating guesthouses, which many have turned a blind eye to, a prime example being Addu City, where no increase in public mask wearers was observed after a guesthouse , Wave Sound by 3S welcomed it’s first guest in months.
HPA have announced an additional 94 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 22 recoveries over the past 24 hours, with over 49 of the confirmed 94 cases being recorded from the greater Malé area. There are currently 27 resorts in Maldives with active cases including 42 tourists and 158 staff.
