The Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer has revealed that the Maldives tourism industry is expected to reopen during the month of July.
Speaking at a press briefing on Friday afternoon at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), the minister highlighted that the government has predicted five scenarios for the tourism industry, out of which the Maldives is currently in “Scenario Three”
In this scenario, Maldives is expected to see 50% tourist arrivals with 462,868 tourist arrivals expected over the course of the remaining months of the year.
This brings the total of predicted tourist arrivals for 2020, to 845,546.
With this being said, the government is expecting the tourism industry to be reopened within July 2020.
The tourism industry is expected to recommence as follows:
- Scenario One: within May
- Scenario Two: within June
- Scenario Three: within July
- Scenario Four: within October and
- Scenario Five: within January 2021.
Evaluation for tourist arrivals for the remainder of the year:
- Scenario One: 44% (579,720 arrivals)
- Scenario Two: 48% (500,610 arrivals)
- Scenario Three: 50% (462,868 arrivals)
- Scenario Four: 63% (242,404 arrivals) and
- Scenario Five: 78% (no arrivals).
The authorities predicted tourist arrivals to increase by eight percent in comparison to next year, before the industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the national productivity expected to rise 7.5%.
However, the estimations changed following the severe impacts of the pandemic.
