Vaccine tourism: Maldives plans to offer COVID-19 jabs to tourists

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While the pandemic wrecked havoc on the travel and tourism sector, the availability of vaccine has come as a hope of revival. In a bid to boost the sector, many countries, which are dependent on travel and tourism industry are now drifting towards vaccine tourism. Maldives, a holiday hotspot in the Indian Ocean, is planning to offer Covid-19 vaccination to any tourist entering the country.

Maldives’ Vaccination Offer The plan to offer vaccination to all the tourists is in the works. The country’s tourism minister, Abdulla Mausoom has announced a 3V approach to revive the domestic economy. As per the strategy, the country will focus on three major steps visit, vaccinate, and vacation. The Maldives has always been a major tourist attraction globally. On average, Maldives is visited by 17 lakh people every year, but due to Covid outbreak, the numbers have dropped drastically.

A strategy to revive the tourism Since July 2020, Maldives has been welcoming travelers from across the world. The country wants to make travel easy and comfortable for its tourists. On April 16, it announced that it will allow entry of only vaccinated visitors. Foreign tourists have to provide a negative report of PCR before entering the country. Besides, tourists will also have to download a national contact tracing app and use it during their stay.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the island nation is decreasing; on average 90 new cases are reported every day. About 28.6% of the country’s 5 lakh inhabitants have undergone complete vaccination. According to the country’s tourism minister, 90% of the front-line tourism workers have been vaccinated.