After closing its borders on 27 March 2020 amid the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives has reopened the borders today.

A special border reopening ceremony held at Velana International Airport was attended by the Acting Head of the Tourism Ministry, the Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaaz Ismail, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Aishath Nahula and the Managing Director of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) Thoyyib Mohamed along with high-ranking officials from the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

At the ceremony, the first flight to land in the Maldives after the border reopening received a water salute. The first after reopening, a flight of Qatar Airways, arrived in the Maldives with 127 passengers this morning at 8:26 a.m. this morning. The passengers include 103 tourists, all from European countries.

Talking to the press after the ceremony, the Managing Director of MMPRC, Thoyyib said that these are very different and challenging times for the world and that would reflect on tourism as well. But, the number of tourist flights arriving in the country will continue to rise.

He said that the hope for Maldivian tourism has been renewed with the first flight and starting from today, the promotional slogan for Maldivian tourism is going to be “Rediscover Maldives, the Sunny Side of Life”.

And the future entails control the illness and manage the situation.

As the Maldivian borders reopen today, two tourist flights are set to arrive today. The government has previously said that 11 airlines including major airlines in the world, have booked slots start flight operations to the Maldives.