South Asian Business news and information

Emerging market.org reports:

The Maldives attracted the majority of their visitors from Europe, with most tourists coming from the UK, Italy, Germany and France; there was also a marked increase, however, in the number of Asian visitors, in particular from Japan and China.

The total bed nights for 2007 were 5,293,224, which represents a 9.7% increase compared with 2006; the average stay per tourist has also shown a slight rise, from 8 days in 2006 to 8.5 in 2007.

Maldives Tourism Promotion Bureau Director General Dr. Abdullah Mausoom said: “2007 was a record breaking year in the history of tourism and we look forward to a similar year in 2008.

Easily available air transportation and diverse tourist package products played major roles behind the growth.

To accommodate more tourists, new hotels, resorts, and airports were built. The Maldives government opened its second international airport in January. Beside the airport, a new resort with 600 beds was also opened. In addition, a new hotel is under construction which will open in the summer season.  

Tourism is the major foreign currency earner for the Maldives. After 2004, the country’s tourism sector observed a downslide. It took two years to recover from the damage and make it profitable. One thing I would like to add here that Maldives government should keep in mind that only building resorts and hotels would not bring in too many visitors. Hotels and resorts should be built in such a way that it does not have any adverse effect on the country’s environment. Maldives is a small island country. New hotels and restaurants mean finding new land. Not all the islands of Maldives are suitable for living. The islands that are suitable are already over populated and there is lot of pollution. At such a critical stage, government, in cooperation with the private sector, should take well planned measures to develop the tourism sector.

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