Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed has revealed tourist scouts will begin services by January next year.
The minister said training tourist scouts will be concluded before the end of the year. The tourist scout programme was initiated to ensure the safety of holidaymakers and to ensure a safe environment for tourists.
The tourism minister said although the programme will be introduced to all parts of the country, initially tourist scouts will be located in islands which deem to be incident prone. He revealed the islands were allocated referring to the amount of beds and the number of incidents reported.
Under the programme, water safety trained lifeguards will be dispatched to the islands. The first phase of the project will introduce 50 lifeguards in 19 islands.
Moreover, the project will be conducted jointly by the island councils and tourism ministry.