Three more guesthouses resume operations
4 ފެބުރުއަރީ 2023 | ހޮނިހިރު 11:49Presently, a total of 1,218 tourist accommodation facilities are operational across Maldives
A guesthouse in Hulhumalé, the capital’s suburban extension
Three more tourist accommodation establishments have resumed operations across the Maldives.
This was revealed by the latest weekly statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism on Friday.
As such, the ministry revealed that the number of operational tourist accommodation establishments across the Maldives has risen to 1,218 with the resuming of services for tourists in three guesthouses over the past week.
These include one guesthouse in Kendhoo island in Baa atoll, one guesthouse in Maalhos island and one in Thoddoo island of Alif Alif atoll.
Presently, a total of 1,218 tourist accommodation facilities are operational across Maldives, with a total of 59,840 tourist beds.
Operational facilities include 168 resorts, 880 guesthouses, 13 hotels and 157 live-aboard vessels. The guesthouses span across 116 islands of 20 atolls, with hotels operational in seven islands of seven atolls.
As of February 1, 69 percent of the bed capacity is occupied by resorts, followed by 23 percent occupied by guesthouses, five percent by safari vessels and three percent by hotels.
The total number of operational beds span across resorts, hotels, guesthouses, and live-aboard vessels including 41,049 in resorts, 1,640 in hotels, 14,250 in guesthouses and 2,901 in live-aboard vessels.
Maldives currently has a capacity of 1,222 tourist facilities which include 157 safari vessels, 880 guesthouses, 13 hotels and 172 resorts. This means that of the total facility capacity, four resorts are yet to resume operations.
The ministry introduced Homestay in the Maldives in January 2022, since then a few more homestay facilities have been opened. This comes under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s tourism development vision and policy to make tourism and its benefits accessible to the island communities as well.
After the Covid 19 pandemic Maldives re-opened borders on 15 July 2020 nearly four months since borders were closed, and at first, resorts and live-aboard vessels were given the green light to begin operations. Guesthouses outside of the Greater Malé Region were permitted to resume operations on 15 October 2020. Authorities allowed the reopening of guesthouses in the capital region on 14 December 2020.
