The Republic of Maldives is opening its borders to all visitors this month amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. The country had announced in the month of June that it will be opening up its borders for tourism in the next month.
See you in July#VisitMaldives pic.twitter.com/NriaGL8ysq
— Ministry of Tourism and Environment (@MoTmv) June 10, 2020
With this news of reopening of the country, India is planning to establish an air-bubble with Maldives for the tourists to travel to the island country. The formal request for the same has been received by New Delhi from the Maldives government.
The aviation minister of India, in the month of June, announced that India might consider establishing travel bubbles with countries as a part of the Vande Bharat mission. “I expect to reach half of the pre-corona level of 1.5-1.6 lakh domestic travelers by mid-July. At that point, we will consider resuming international fights on a country-by-country basis” said H.S. Puri.
The establishment of the air bubble would enable the movement of international flights to and from Maldives, even before India resumes regular international travel. As per the Indian Express, the bubble would also allow around 6000 Indian nationals, who had been evacuated in May, to go back to Maldives and continue with their livelihoods.
At the same time, this bubble would also resuscitate tourism in Maldives. The economy of the country is pre-dominated by the Tourism sector. The sector has a 70% contribution to the GDP of the country.
On June 23, the president of the country, Ibrahim Solih, announced the re-opening of the nation and the resorts from July 15. However, the populated areas like the country’s capital Male, would reopen by 1st August.
Apart from cutting on the visa and landing cost, the government has also announced that there is no need to present prior testing certificates or to self-quarantine. The president has also mentioned that they would be conducting a test, a day prior to a tourist’s departure back to India, to ensure that they are not carrying the infection with them. The president termed it as a ‘gesture’ from their side.
As of July 11, the country, with a population of 5,00,000, had nearly 2700 COVID-19 positive cases, out of which over 2200 have recovered and only 13 deaths have been reported so far. Thus, the country has been considered as a low-risk zone.
