Male’, Maldives – President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Friday afternoon, has this launched the first issue of “Maldives Tourism Bulletin”, a tourism magazine published by the Ministry of Tourism.
Announcing the launch in a tweet, President Solih stated that he is confident that the magazine would prove useful for the industry stakeholders, students and visitors. The magazine depicts the Governments’ plans to advance the tourism sector in the Maldives.
President Solih also contributed to the foreword of the first issue. He stated that our natural assets and the tourism sector’s care and expertise had established the Maldives as a standard-bearer for the industry and one of the world’s most popular destinations. He expounded on the hardships the industry has had to endure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, affirming that through the combined efforts of stakeholders, and stringent safety measures taken to ensure that the Maldives is a safe-destination, the number of visitors to the destination is now steadily on the rise.
He also expressed his optimism that we will continue to see the tourism sector strengthen as the Maldives, and the world, recover in 2021. The magazine can be accessed at tourism.gov.mv/en/news/maldives_tourism_bulletin
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge effect on the tourism industry and as Maldives recovers from the pandemic, continuous efforts are made by the government and the industry to restore former tourism level in Maldives. Due to the hard work and effort from all those working in the industry, the country has managed to successfully welcome more than its targeted amount of tourists to the country with 554,800 tourist arrivals recorded for the year 2020, despite the pandemic.
While the island nation does not require tourists to go through quarantine or testing on arrival, all the tourists are required to complete an online health declaration form given by the country and to also provide a negative PCR test result along with it. The PCR test must be taken at least 96 hours prior to departure.
However, due to the newly found Covid-19 variant in United Kingdom, tourists arriving from UK on work visas and locals who spend over 12 hours in UK will have to go through a mandatory 10 day quarantine period in Maldives upon arrival. As the new variant of the virus has now been discovered in neighbouring countries India and Pakistan, health officials urge the public to remain vigilant to avoid another outbreak in Maldives.
