Tourism Minister, Ali Waheed, has said that 13 new tourist resorts will be opened next year.

Speaking at the special event “Burabi” last night at Dharubaaruge to announce the new islands leased for tourism development, Minister Waheed, said that there were 143 tourist reports, 30 hotels, 703 guesthouses and 314 vessels and 12 bareboats along with two yacht marinas; a total of 51,680 tourist beds.

However, the current administration, in its first year, has developed 21 resorts, one hotel, 101 guesthouses, five tourist vessels, one bareboat and a yacht marina and increase the number of tourist beds by 6,782 according to the Tourism Minister.

And so, excluding the establishments closed for renovations and re-registrations, there are a total of 898 tourist facilities in the country.

Minister Waheed said that an additional 13 resorts will be opened next year with 4,127 beds. And as per the government’s strategic action plan to fulfill the pledge of adding 35,000 beds, the goal can be achieved by 2023.

Highlighting that the highest number of tourists visited the Maldives from China, India, Germany, Italy and the UK, Minister Waheed said that by last Sunday, 1.6 million tourists visited the country which marks as a success for the government.