Maldives Minister of Tourism claims he is hopeful the tourism industry will resume activities by the third quarter of 2020.
Minister Ali Waheed voiced his hopes during an interview with CNN’s “Quest Means Business” on Thursday evening.
According to Waheed the Maldives government started preparing for all possible scenarios; especially towards impacts to the tourism industry, in the wake of a new coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China around late 2019.
The novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported around late December 2019.
Minister Waheed sounded hopeful the island nation’s border will once again reopen for international travelers by the third quarter of current year. The tourism industry is expected to resume its activities around this period.
Borders will be reopened post full compliance in accordance to World Health Organization’s health guidelines. Minister Waheed further commented, relevant documents regards to border reopening will be presented to the Maldives cabinet in the current month.
Earlier, Ministry of Finance had forecast five various scenarios for the tourism industry with the intermediate scenario expecting close to 50% dwindling of tourist arrivals to Maldives in 2020.
The tourism industry came to an abrupt standstill after all international travels to the island nation were restricted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Maldives government placed strict travel restrictions on several major tourist market countries which included France, Italy, China and Spain along with UK and Germany. Meanwhile, most international carriers have ceased flight operations entirely.