President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has held discussions with the Guesthouse Association of Maldives (GAM) over issues faced by guesthouses due to the current COVID-19 situation.
The discussions were held in an online meeting held on June 20. The meeting was attended by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer and senior officials of GAM.
Speaking at the meeting, President Solih shared his vision on developing the guesthouse industry of the Maldives. He also listened to the concerns of guesthouse owners regarding the current COVID-19 situation, and the financial difficulties endured by guesthouses due to prolonged restrictions. Discussions were held on ways to address the issues, and to help guesthouses recover as soon as possible.
Guesthouses are among the worst affected businesses due to COVID-19. Guesthouses across the country were forced to suspend operations in March last year upon the detection of COVID-19 cases in the Maldives. Despite the reopening of borders in July, guesthouses were not permitted to reopen until October, with guesthouses in the Greater Male’ Region forced to wait until December to reopen. However, guesthouses were soon closed again with the new surge of COVID-19 cases in the Maldives this year.
As part of efforts to help guesthouses recover from the current situation, the government has introduced a relief package especially for guesthouse businesses. In this regard, Bank of Maldives (BML) is issuing relief loans for guesthouses and other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector affected by COVID-19, under the USD 10 million loan agreement signed with the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).