In light of recent events, officials from the Ministry of Tourism have initiated the conversation of tourist safety and guesthouse operations before the Parliament’s Rules Committee. The Maldives’ Ministry of Tourism has decided to carry out targeted inspections due to rising concerns regarding illegal and unregistered guesthouses. 

State Minister Ahmed Nazim Mohamed highlighted that within the next two weeks, the Ministry aims to focus on popular local tourism areas to address this issue and work on implementing strict guidelines for guesthouses. 

To enforce these inspections, the Ministry will work in collaboration with the local police in prominent tourism atolls, Kaafu, Alif Alif, Dhaal, and Vaavu. Minister Nazim has also shed light to the issue that guesthouses that are not officially registered in the Ministry’s database, often go unnoticed unless a report is made by the local council. To tackle these issues, the Ministry is taking legal action towards those who are operating guesthouses without a valid license.

In addition to the inspection plan, the Ministry also aims to work with the health ministry to provide basic first aid skills such as CPR to residents in guesthouse areas to ensure and increase tourist safety. Furthermore, through partnership with the Health Ministry, the establishment of resort clinics, with doctors who can tend to emergencies is also in the works. 

To further focus on tourist safety, the Tourism Ministry is currently in the final drafts of a revised safety standards regulation which is set to be reissued within three months with new guidelines to avoid further incidents such as the one that occurred last month in AA. Rasdhoo, where a tourist tragically died while snorkeling at a guesthouse with an expired license. 

Minister Nazim has focused on issues with the regulatory framework of guesthouses as well as tourist safety and the tourism ministry are taking steps to strengthen the guesthouse sector in the Maldives to prevent further repercussions.