Maldives expects tourist arrivals to drop by 50% this year due to coronavirus

The Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer has stated that the number of tourist arrivals projected for 2020 is at 845,000, which is an over 50% drop compared to the previous year.

Providing information to the People’s Majlis Economic Committee, the minister noted that the new projection states that Maldives will see a total of 845,000 tourist arrivals through the entire year.

This is a 50% decrease in comparison to the tourist arrivals during the previous year, which was over 1.7 million.

Before the country’s economy took a direct hit in connection to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, sweeping across the globe at a dangerously alarming rate, tourist arrivals were expected to be higher that the record observed during 2019.

During his presidential address this year, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih revealed that he aims to maintain tourist arrivals at over 2.5 million by the end of his five-year tenure.

Since the pandemic surfaced in the Maldives on 7 March, the government has been taking stringent measures, including the suspension of issuing on-arrival visas to all inbound tourists from 27 March onwards and since then, the country’s main source of revenue, the tourism industry has been at a complete standstill.

Noting that it is difficult to estimate when the country is expected to see tourist arrivals again, Ameer stated that work is underway to compile a list of projections in connection to tourist arrivals, along with the Ministry of Economic Development and the relevant stakeholders.

Up until March this year, tourist arrivals in the Maldives had decreased by 60% and the country has seen about 382,000 arrivals thus far in 2020.

The minister predicts the real GDP to drop by 11.5% due to the decreased tourist arrivals in the country, thus four months into the year.

80% of state income is acquired through tourism and the president had earlier noted that any significant decline in the country’s tourist arrivals has a ripple effect on its economy.

Tourism contributes over a quarter of the country’s GDP and is the source of well over two-thirds of foreign currency to the country. Every other job-creating and revenue-generating activity in the country is either directly or indirectly dependent on the tourism industry.

The industry is also deeply linked to many businesses and supply chains within the SAARC region, who will feel the knock on effects from the downturn in the Maldives.

Since the industry began going on a downward spiral, the government has been facilitating ways through which the country’s agricultural and fisheries industry may be boosted.