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Tourism Sector in
the Maldives
Tourism industry is the largest sector
in which foreign investment is common.
The Maldives in the early days of tourism
had a relaxed policy to attract investments.
This has facilitated private sector involvement
and rapid growth in the sector based on
market forces. All the islands used as
resorts are leased by the government for
private individuals or companies. Multinational
companies and hoteliers like Hilton Hotels,
Club Med, Four Season and One and Only
etc… run and manage resorts in the
Maldives today.
Many Maldives resort owners assign management
contracts with foreign companies and some
of these resorts are solely managed and
owned by such companies.
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Tourism sector
attracts foreign investment in Maldives |
The industry now is very much regulated
by the government of the Maldives. Tourism
is now developed and managed according
to country wide policy based on a master
plan. This task is carried out by the
Ministry of Tourism. The ministry in the
light of their development plan decides
how many beds will be allocated in the
country for tourists in a given period.
In Maldives the resorts are self contained
island communities with all the amenities
on the island. Each of these small islands
is a resort. The government leases these
islands to private parties to develop
as tourist resorts. Bidding of the islands
are regulated under Maldives
Tourism Act 1999. Under this Act any
island which is to be developed as a resort
shall go on public bid. The bid document
is issued by the Ministry of Tourism and
it has to be submitted to the ministry
before allocated time for each bidding
process. The winning bidder is decided
based on certain criteria they have set.
This year Maldives government annouced
that they will lease 35 islands for resort
development. Bid documents are available
from the Ministry
of Tourism and Civil Aviation.
As tourism sector is a wide industry
there are scope for investments in many
different related activities such as supply
of goods and other services to this industry.
If you need specific
advice please submit your queries through
our contact
us form.
The
Maldives Tourism Act 1999
This is an unofficial translation of Maldives
Tourism Act 1999. This act has repealed
the earlier version of which was introduced
in 1979, the number 15/79 (Law on Tourism
in the Maldives) and Act No. 3/94 (Law
on Leasing of Uninhabited Islands for
the Development of Tourist Resorts).
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