The Guesthouse Maldives Conference 2016 concluded in Male’ City on Saturday.
More than one hundred and sixty representatives from companies operating guesthouses and travel agents attended the 1-day conference held at Dharubaaruge Convention Centre.
The Guesthouse Maldives Conference provided a networking platform for guesthouse operators and travel agents.
The one-day event held annually, included pre-scheduled business meetings, education sessions, networking events and interactive evening functions held exclusively for the guesthouse industry. The conference brought together local guesthouse operators and representatives from world renowned online travel websites such as Expedia, booking dot com and Agoda, where they shared their expertise with each other.
Speaking at the BML Guesthouse Maldives Conference 2016, Finance Minister Ahmed Munawar said “guesthouse business is an important sector the Maldives tourism industry and the government attaches high priority to the development of the sector.” The Minister highlighted that over 75 percent of the guesthouse sector workforce are locals and that a huge percentage of them are women.
Over three hundred guesthouses are being operated across the country and the sector has seen rapid growth over the past few years.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the BML Guesthouse Maldives Conference 2016, CEO and Managing Director of Bank of Maldives, Andrew Healy said “we will continue to support the development of the country’s guesthouse sector.”
Dr. Hussain Sunny Umar, Business Development Officer at Maldives Getaways, earlier said that the target to attract over 500,000 visitors to guesthouses across the country by the year 2020 could easily be achieved with support from event partners and stakeholders.
The Guesthouse Maldives Conference was organised by public relations and marketing agency Maldives Getaways.