Is Maldives At A Point Where It Is Safe To Resume Domestic Tourism?

As restrictions on travel begin to ease globally, destinations around the world are focusing on growing domestic tourism, with many offering incentives to encourage people to explore their own countries. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), with domestic tourism set to return faster than international travel, this represents an opportunity for both developed and developing countries to recover from the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic at the same time safeguarding jobs, protecting livelihoods and allowing the social benefits tourism offers to also return.

Via a tweet yesterday, the Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, has expressed that is the right time to restart domestic tourism in the Maldives. He further stated that stakeholder discussions will be held on the first of February to formulate the model to restart domestic tourism with maximum safety but a minimum inconvenience. In his tweet, the Minister also reasoned that this move will bring economic and social benefits to the country, especially to the islands.

Whilst Maldives is a popular holiday destination amongst people worldwide, a lot of locals often adore traveling between the geographically dispersed islands of the country for their vacations. At present, locals are permitted to travel to resorts with the condition of presenting a 72-hour negative PCR test prior to the visit whereas they would be mandated to go through a quarantine period if traveling from one island to another amongst other restrictions such as denied access to guesthouse accommodations.

Recently, the number of positive cases has shown to have been increasing, nationwide. So should existing preventive measures be further eased to accommodate domestic tourism? How well would maximum safety and minimum inconvenience go hand-in-hand? Can the Maldives handle it? We need answers.