Minister of Tourism Mausoom Abdulla has stated that the biggest challenge that the hospitality industry is facing this year has been expensive flights.

Speaking during a program on Raajje TV, the Minister noted that the goal of 1.6 million tourist arrivals will be completed by the third week of December. As such, he noted that a high number of tourist arrivals are expected following the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

He further highlighted that even though tourism has picked up better since the Covid-19 pandemic began, there were different challenges that the industry faced as a whole. Mainly, he noted that expensive flights and scarcity of flights were the bigger challenges.

The Minister noted that despite increased prices, many different airlines are now operating to the Maldives. He further revealed that while works to secure more airline operations to the Maldives are ongoing, an American airline will soon begin flights to the country.

According to the statistics by tourism ministry,1،524،265 had arrived by December 6th.