A digest of news and opinion from the Maldives.
The Maldives has restarted tourism and reopened borders for visitors from all nationalities from 15th July 2020. To contain the spread of the COVID-19, countries are enforcing mandatory negative COVID-19 PCR test results when travellers return to their countries. This raises the question: Can Maldives address this requirement? Do we have enough testing facilities in […]
After welcoming a record-breaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals in the Maldives, the popular tourist destination targeted for 2 million arrivals in 2020. However, due to the global pandemic that significantly affected international tourism, the government now expected to see 850,000 tourist arrivals this year. Will the island nation be able to achieve this target? According […]
A research study conducted by the Higher Education Ministry reveals that the majority of secondary graduates show interest and wish to opt for a career in the tourism sector. This study shows that 21% of students are interested to build a career in the Tourism Industry. Tourism is the largest economic industry in the Maldives […]
Did you know that around 200 islands in the Maldives are uninhabited, deserted islands? However, the majority of these have been developed as resorts and currently, there are over 150 resorts in the island nation. The reducing number of uninhabited islands has been a concern for locals for several years. One example is the Kuda […]
When you go to your favourite restaurant, have you ever wondered who was the talented person who made the dish? In the Maldives, we see very few local chefs and it’s time to figure out why this is the case. Mohamed Adam, commonly known as ‘Chef Mode’, is one of the most talented cooks in […]
Moosa Nasih, former President of the Guesthouse Association of Maldives (GAM) has questioned the present government’s promise to develop the local island tourism in the Maldives. According to his statement, the bookings made in guesthouses for August is being cancelled and even the future bookings are being changed to other destinations. As per the Guidelines […]
The Maldives government has recently announced, they had decided to decrease the land rent charged on islands leased for tourism purposes in the Maldives. Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail, who is currently leading and administrating the Tourism Ministry, had tweeted revealing the government’s decision to reduce land rent in a bid to progress tourism in the […]
Eva and I first visited the Maldives in the 1980s. We fell in love with the country, holidayed here many times and, in the early 1990s, started to invest. Initially it was in Humming Bird helicopters, the country’s first domestic air transportation company, which eventually morphed into TMA. Then we moved into hotels, starting with Soneva […]
Controversies have arisen after the President of People’s Majlis, Mohamed Nasheed, proposed the provision of resident visa for foreigners who live in a rented house in the Maldives for 10 years. A residence visa is a document or a card required in some regions, allowing a foreign national to reside in a country for a […]