(CNN) – It was one of the first countries to be fully reopened for travelers, and now the Maldives is aiming to be ahead of the competition in terms of vaccine tourism.
Indian Ocean destination officials have announced plans to offer tourists vaccinations upon arrival in an effort to attract more visitors.
Dr Abdulla Mausoom, the country’s tourism minister, confirmed that the Maldives was developing a ‘3V tourism’ scheme, enabling tourists to provide ‘visits, vaccinations and holidays’.
According to Mausoom, the country plans to offer two doses of the vaccine to visitors, which means that those who sign up for it will have to stay in the Maldives for a few weeks.
He hopes the program will help tourism on the Indian Ocean archipelago, which averaged 1.7 million visitors a year before the pandemic.
‘Vaccination’ program
The Maldives plans to offer vaccinations to travelers to promote tourism.
Carl Court / Getty Images
However, international travelers who would like to book a “waxation” package to the Maldives will have to wait, at least for now.
The “3V” scheme will not continue until the entire population of the country, which is estimated to be just under 550,000, has been fully vaccinated.
“So once the country is vaccinated, we move on to ‘3V’ tourism.”
“Our main advantage is the unique geographical features of the Maldives,” he said, explaining that the fact that the guests could be spread across the different islands was particularly attractive to travelers, and also meant that social distance measures were slightly easier to get into. to maintain.
“We have promoted the destination as a safe haven for the tourists.”
Strong offer
Mausoom hopes that the vaccination program will increase visitor numbers even further, but will the jabs come from there, and will the Maldives be able to supply enough to meet the demand of international travelers?
“I do not think supply is a problem in the Maldives because our population is relatively small,” he told CNBC. “The quota we get from the various organizations and friendly countries will also help.”
However, he did not specify whether travelers would be charged for receiving the vaccine.
Currently, there are at least 500 resorts and guest houses in the Maldives that are open to international visitors, but the capital Malé is still unlimited.
The Maldives closed its borders at the end of March, but officials chose to reopen all international travelers in July without any restrictions.
Although visitors have had to set up a negative Covid-19 test since September, travelers have still had the welcome of travelers over the past few months, with business being relatively low.
Lilit Marcus and Julia Buckley also contributed to this report.