Split stays now permitted at all tourist establishments

The Ministry of Tourism has announced that tourists visiting the Maldives can ow split their stay between resorts, safaris and even guesthouses as well. 

 The Ministry announced the move via Twitter, stating that split stays can now be made at all types of tourist accommodation facilities

Split Stay allowed at ALL types of tourist accommodation facilities in #Maldives:

Tourists can now split their stay between resort, hotels, guest houses and live aboard boats, with prior approval as per split-stay procedure/ guideline by Ministry of Tourism.#VisitMaldivesNow

— Ministry of Tourism (@MoTmv) October 23, 2020

Previously the Ministry had permitted split stays between multiple resorts and safaris. Now, the Ministry has added local guesthouses in areas apart from the capital Male' City to the accommodations where split stays can be made.

Guesthouses in local islands apart from the capital region were permitted to reopen on October 15. Guesthouses were only permitted to reopen after meeting certain specific safety measures such as an established flu clinic on the island where the guesthouse is located as well as the allocation of a certain number of rooms for isolation purposes. 

Tourists arriving to the Maldives are also mandated to present a negative PCR test result conducted no more than 96 hours before their departure. 

The Maldives initially closed down its borders due to the virus back in March and reopened in the middle of July. The tourism industry, the biggest in the nation suffered hard due to the border closure. However, the industry is now slowly resurging with tourist arrival numbers calculated at more than 31,000 in the few months since reopening.