Tourism Minister Ali Waheed is to chair the 32nd meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Commission for South Asia (CSA).

The joint meeting, with the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific (CAP), is scheduled for June 30. The latter is to be chaired by Malaysia.

While it was arranged for the 32nd CAP-CSA joint meeting to be held in Sri Lanka, at the 31st meeting held in Bhutan, it was decided to hold the meeting virtually due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The main item on the meeting’s agenda is the “international protection of tourists, rebuilding consumer confidence and policy issues in response with the Covid-19 pandemic”.

It will also focus on the impact of the crisis on international tourism, and participants are to exchange views on UNWTO global guideline to restart tourism.

UNWTO's Secretary General, Zurab Pololikashvili, will also attend the meeting.

Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced, on Tuesday, that the country’s borders will reopen for international travel on July 15. While resorts are to open the same day, work is underway to reopen guesthouses in August.

The tourism ministry has compiled a safe tourism guideline, together with stakeholders, to restart the tourism industry which plays the biggest role in the country’s economy.