Friday, March 23, 2007

4,000 extra beds needed to make southern Maldives a tourism region

An extra 4,000 beds will be needed to make southern Maldives a tourism region, the tourism ministry said on Tuesday.

Minister Dr. Mahmood Shougee told a meeting of the Maldives Tourism Development Cooperation that over the last three years, the government facilitated for 1,230 beds to be built in the southern region.

"At the end of the second tourism master plan, this target was not achieved. After we announce the new master plan, we will go ahead with developing the extra 4,000 beds," Dr. Shougee said.

The minister said that Addu and Huvadhoo atolls will then become another tourism zone like Male and Ari atolls. He said that industry insiders had requested for extra beds to be built in the region.

Work on construction of four out of the 12 resort islands is proceeding speedily, according to Dr. Shougee.

At the meeting, MTDC's chairman "Champa" Hussain Afeef said that the Addu Atoll International Airport at Gan island can be best utilized if resorts built in the southern region are oriented towards middle income travelers.

Presently, Maldives tourism is heavily being oriented towards up market travelers, creating concern among economic analysts.

Source: Haveeru

1 comment:

david said...

I personlly think its a great idea. In theory more mattresses would make hotels cheaper wouldnt it?