President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has announced that tourism sector will increase 1,300 beds in 2020.
Addressing the nation at the parliament inaugural ceremony for the year, president said that the tourism industry aims to achieve certain targets even in the year 2020.
He mentioned that while 50,591 beds were operated in 2019, with 13 new resorts and 74 guesthouses, tourism sector will witness additional 1,300 beds in 2020.
The president highlighted that the coronavirus crisis does have a huge impact on the tourism industry of Maldives. From January 26th to February 2nd, the industry has received 13,287 booking cancellations. In order to combat this loss, several destination marketing campaigns will be taken place even this year.
The tourism sector achieved its target for 2019 by welcoming over 1.7 million tourists. This is a 14.7% increase from the previous year.
The government aims to achieve target of 2.15 million tourists in 2021 and to increase the tourist arrivals to 2.5 million within the next 4 years.