Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer has stated the Maldivian tourism industry is expected to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels within two years. The finance minister made the statement at a webinar on investing in the Maldives, hosted by the Embassy of the Maldives in Belgium.
At the webinar, Minister Ameer said he is confident of the Maldivian tourism industry surpassing one million tourist arrivals this year and fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic within two years. Minister Ameer said the economy is projected to recover by 22.7% in 2021, following the contraction of 32% in 2020, based on the strong rebound in tourism.
The minister further said the Government of the Maldives has always played a facilitative role for commerce and investment, especially through economic infrastructure and that upgrading the Velana International Airport (VIA) will increase the current capacity of 2 million tourists per year by facilitating an additional 4-5 million tourists. He said the COVID-19 pandemic was a great shock to the Maldivian economy in 2020 and had caused the borders and tourism industry to close for a number of months.
However, the finance minister highlighted that the Maldives was one of the first tourism destinations to re-open its borders and open up the industry safely by taking advantage of the country's unique geography of isolated and dispersed islands with tourist resorts insulated from the general population.
He said the result was a sharp rebound in tourist arrivals at the end of the year and the country was able to maintain the momentum into the first quarter of 2021.
Despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Minister Ameer said the tourist positivity rate remains at around 0.2%, which is proof that the government's safety measures for the tourist establishments are effective and that the tour operators are diligently observing these measures.
Numerous senior officials of the government and around 90 investors participated in the webinar, which focused on the investment opportunities in the Maldives, especially in the areas of tourism, fisheries, and renewable energy.