This holiday spot offers vaccinations to visitors

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(CNN) – It was one of the first countries to completely reopen for travelers, and now the Maldives is striving to get ahead of the game when it comes to vaccine tourism.

Officials at the Indian Ocean destination have announced plans to offer vaccines to tourists on arrival, with the aim of attracting more visitors.

Dr Abdulla Mausoom, the country’s tourism minister, has confirmed that the Maldives is developing a “3V tourism” scheme that would allow tourists to “visit, vaccinate and holiday”.

According to Mausoom, the country plans to offer two doses of the vaccine to visitors, which means those who sign up should stay in the Maldives for several weeks.

He hopes the program will help boost tourism in the Indian Ocean island archipelago, which had an average of 1.7 million visitors a year before the pandemic.

Vaxication Program

Tourists relax on Hulhumale Beach, one of two artificial islands built up to 3 meters above sea level next to the capital of Male.

Maldives plans to offer vaccines to travelers in an attempt to boost tourism.

Carl Court / Getty Images

However, international travelers who want to book a “vaxication” package in the Maldives will have to wait, at least for now.

The “3V” scheme will not go ahead until the entire population of the country, estimated at just under 550,000, is fully vaccinated.

“The main idea of ​​opening up tourism is to provide reasonably safe tourism with minimal inconvenience,” Mausoom recently told CNBC International.

“So once the country is vaccinated, we will move to ‘3V’ tourism.”

He confirmed that about 53% of the population has received the first dose of vaccine, including 90% of front-line tourism workers.
In February, Thoyyib Mohame, CEO of Maldives Marketing & PR Corporation, told CNN Travel that the country has received 555,494 visitors in 2020, exceeding its tight arrival forecast of 500,000.

“Our biggest advantage is the unique geographical features of the Maldives,” he said, explaining that the fact that guests can disperse across its different islands has proven especially appealing to travelers and also meant that social distancing measures they were a little easier to maintain.

“We promoted the destination as a safe haven for tourists.”

Strong supply

Mausoom hopes the vaccination program will further increase the number of visitors, but are the blows coming and will the Maldives be able to supply enough to meet the demand of international travelers?

According to the minister, the country has received donations of vaccines from India and China, as well as from the World Health Organization’s Covax plan and is currently awaiting an additional order from Singapore.

“I don’t think supply is an issue in the Maldives because our population is relatively small,” he told CNBC. “The share we get from the various friendly organizations and nations will also help.”

However, he did not specify whether travelers will be charged for receiving the vaccine.

There are currently at least 500 resorts and guest houses in the Maldives open to international visitors, but its capital, Malé, is out of bounds.

The Maldives closed its borders in late March, but officials chose to fully reopen all unrestricted international travelers in July.

Although visitors have been forced to produce a negative Covid-19 test on arrival since September, the destination has continued to welcome travelers in recent months, with relatively low cases.

Lilit Marcus and Julia Buckley also contributed to this report.

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