The islandchief

Guesthouse Symposium to be Held this Month

Maldives

PUBLISHED December 16, 2018

The Minister of Tourism, Honourable Ali Waheed has announced that a guesthouse symposium will be held at Dharubaaruge on 29th December 2018.

While Speaking during a press conference at A. A. Rasdhoo last Friday, the Minister stated that the symposium will be open to all guesthouse businesses operating in the Maldives and invited them to part at the event.

He revealed that the purpose of the symposium will be to recognise the issues that are facing local tourism or the local guesthouse business and to find a collective and effective solution to them through an exchange of ideas and discussion.

"During this symposium, we will listen to the opinion of guesthouse businesses on branding and produce papers on fulfilling one of this administrations biggest objectives to marketplaces or islands in the Maldives as destinations," said Ali Waheed, the Minister of Tourism of the Maldives.

"We will identify room for improvement to regulations with the counsel of the guesthouse sector. And we will identify the benefits of guesthouse business to local communities and evaluate how the benefits can be increased."

The minister further stated that the local guesthouse operators will be given the opportunity to produce and present their own papers to the government during the symposium, which will be the biggest such guesthouse sector event to be held in the Maldives.

The government of the Maldives has pledged to promote and enhance the tourism sector of the Maldives with new initiatives and more funding.

Dozens of uninhabited islands to local and foreign resort developers over the past five years and a number of international brands have entered into the Maldivian market increasing the number of resorts. More resorts are expected to open over the next two years, increasing the numbers yet again.

Along with the new resort openings, the guesthouse sector is also rapidly expanding in order to meet the increasing demand from budget travellers who choose guesthouses over luxury resorts that the Maldives is known for.

According to the latest figures, total arrivals for the past 10 months of the year increased by 7.3 per cent to reach 1,207,852 compared to the 1,125,995 in the same period of last year.

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