The government is set to allow guesthouses to resume their businesses from the 15th of next month.
Sources have said that the government came to the decision when President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih met the officials of the COVID-19 taskforce last night.
Sources have also said that the guesthouses would be allowed to resume business based on pre-set categories and only in islands that have taken specific cautionary measures.
Recently Tourism Minister Dr. Abdullah Mausoom had said that the delay in resuming the guesthouse businesses is a grave concern currently facing the tourism sector.
He highlighted that the guest house business is an important part of the tourism sector and hoped that a date to resume the business would be set soon.
The country reopened its borders to guests in mid-July after shutting its borders for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previously, the government had said that it would allow guesthouses to resume operations on the 1st of August but later on revised the decision as the COVID-19 situation in the country worsened.
Earlier Guesthouse Association of Maldives (GAM) had trained their focus on the delay in the reopening date of the guesthouse industry, noting several of the local tourism establishments were facing heavy financial losses.
In a survey from the association, it had made forecast the industry will take a turn towards recovery by the second quarter of following year if the local tourism segment gets a start by September 2020 in the latest.
