Number of operational tourist facilities drops

The number of operational tourist facilities across the Maldives has dropped.

This was revealed by the latest weekly statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism on Thursday.

As such, the ministry’s figures revealed that as of November 22, the number of operational tourist accommodation facilities across the Maldives sat at 1,272.

The guesthouses span across 119 islands of 20 atolls, with hotels operational in eight islands of eight atolls. 68 percent of the bed capacity is occupied by resorts, followed by 24 percent occupied by guesthouses, five percent by safari vessels and three percent by hotels.

Presently, a total of 63,059 tourist beds are in operation across these facilities, which include 175 resorts, 920 guesthouses, 14 hotels and 163 live-aboard vessels.

This means that over the past week, one resort resumed services and three guesthouses halted services.

The beds operational across these facilities include 42,817 in resorts, 1,940 in hotels, 15,094 in guesthouses and 3,208 in live-aboard vessels.

Maldives currently has a capacity of 1,276 tourist facilities which include 163 safari vessels, 920 guesthouses, 14 hotels and 179 resorts. This means that of the total facility capacity, four resorts have 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.