Ministry of Tourism’s “master plan” for the industry is set to be launched on Monday night.

The ceremony to launch the master plan is to be joined by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed and coalition leaders including Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

During the ceremony, in which several workers in the tourism industry will partake, participants will be educated on security measures that may be taken in times of unfortunate incidents and the ministry will also launch their “beach scouts” initiative.

Along with the launching of the master plan, the ministry will also launch the initiative to compile a registry of tourism workers in the country during the ceremony.

The ministry revealed that they reached the decision to station beach scouts after investigations into incidents reported from various islands. The scouts will patrol beaches and a special committee will be formed to investigate incidents related to tourists.

In the first phase of the program, the ministry will station 50 scouts in 19 inhabited islands.

The decision comes after a perceivable rise in tourist drownings across resorts and outlying islands. As such, 58 such incidents were reported from the beginning of the year till June, with 38 deaths related to sea incidents.

Last year, 45 such cases were reported out of which 39 died. Most of the deaths were related to sea incidents while snorkeling, swimming or diving.

In addition, the ministry is also to begin work to compile a registry of workers in the industry. As such, the ministry stated that the aim of doing so is to address the challenges Maldivians face in the industry and to provide a solution to the obstacles.

The ministry predicts the registry to be completed and launched by May 2020.

Earlier, Tourism Ministry Ali Waheed had stated that they crafted the master plan with the opinions from both local and foreign workers in tourism, and that the plan will bring good changes. As such, while the percentage of women working in the industry is recorded low at just seven, this will also be changed. Stressing that there is discrimination between foreign and local workers, Waheed said that the plan will eradicate this injustice. Many such improvements will be seen in the industry through the master plan, revealed the minister.

The last tourism master plan was introduced during the previous government of Abdulla Yameen, in 2013, under the leadership of then Touris Minister Ahmed Adeeb.