Republic of Maldives Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture Dr. Ahmed Ali Sawad said the aim was to make the new democratic system a success in the global market and part of that was through tourism.
“For the tourism sector I think the Maldives is known throughout the world as a luxury destination and we have a lot of tourist products,” Sawad said.
“Our exercise is to focus on areas where we have not had a strong presence, particularly the Middle East and India so the new government policy is to strengthen those ties.”
The new government is looking to expand and diversify the capacity over the next five to six years, with an additional 11,000 beds on the current stock of 20,000, according to Sawad.
“We realised the boom happened in the late 80s and 90s based on a strong mid-market tourism and it expanded into the high-end — it upgraded,” he said.
“In the industry right now we are saying there is a lot of room for both these segments and we are putting a lot of emphasis into that mid-market product, while strengthening access for our key markets.”
In a further bid to diversify the Maldives product, the government is promoting its heritage tourism, rather than relying on the image of unspoiled beauty.
“Maldives is known as a luxury resort what we are saying is there is room to add value to that and to add value to the tourism experience,” Sawad said.
“Most people don’t know we are almost a 2000 year old civilization, 1200 islands of which 200 are inhabited.”
Furthermore, the government is exploring the opportunity of developing a reputation as a sea sports hub in the Indian Ocean.
“We have some of the most amazing lagoons and reefs and beautiful islands and these are unique places where the cruising tourist could stop by,” Sawad told ATN.
There is now a further emphasis on the potential of luxury residences for top-end clients, something of particular interest to the Middle East market, but Sawad said the “guiding motto” was “the Maldives is open for business”.
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