Speaking on an episode of BBC and PATA’s Destination Insight webinar series, Tourism Minister Dr. Abdulla Mausoom stated that Maldives is expecting over 100,000 tourist arrivals for the remainder of 2020.
Although Maldives saw a huge decline in arrivals when the country first opened its borders on 15th July, the numbers have started to pick up. Tourist arrivals to the Maldives in 2020 have reached over 399,000. According to the latest statistics by Maldives Immigration, over 20,000 tourists have arrived in the Maldives, since the border reopened in July.
“Our numbers are increasing and this year we are expecting 100,000 plus for this remaining period. And another thing is, people are deciding to stay longer now because of border-crossing hassles. They choose to stay longer. So our average duration of stay is over two weeks now. It was one week, earlier,” said the Minister.
As per HPA statistics, case numbers have dropped from over a 100 in October, on 7th October 2020 with 89.6% recovery rate. There are no reported community spread in any of the islands in Maldives. The only community spread is in Male’ and with existing safety measures, the country will be able to manage any unlikely community spread in islands.
