The Republic of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean made up of more than 1,000 coral islands, is blessed with a spectacular geography which has resulted in its evolution as a paradise for tourism. The country is at an advantage in terms of attracting visitors primarily due to the sun, sea, and sand. Since the industry’s beginning in 1972, the natural splendour of the Maldives has spurred tourism growth as the primary driver of the economy. The cross-pollinating nature of tourism and the role it plays in the economy becomes apparent when we note that this sector contributes a large percentage of many economic indicators.
The COVID-19 pandemic became a pressing concern for the Maldives as the entire tourism operation came to a halt when borders were closed at the start of 2020. Consequently, the Maldives tourism ministry reported a drastic drop of roughly 1,147,393 tourist arrivals in 2020. By contrast with the 1,702,887 tourist arrivals in 2019, there were only 555,494 arrivals in 2020, representing a 67% decline (YoY). The average occupancy rate fell steeply in 2020 for the first time in almost ten years, a historic turn that further exacerbated the impact and there were no signs of recovery until 2021. Accordingly, the average occupancy rate decelerated to 25.7% in 2020, down from a rate of 62.3% in 2019. The pandemic also brought downward pressure on the number of bed nights and the bed night capacity, thereby, resulting in the bed nights contracting by 66.7% to 3.98 million bed nights and bed night capacity contracting by 41.19% to 10.15 million in 2020 compared to 2019.