The Maldives is made up of many small islands (over a thousand islands), forming multiple ring shaped atolls in a vast ocean territory, each island separated by deep blue seas. This unique formation has paved the way for the infamous “One Island, One Resort” concept in the Maldives. This makes it a safe haven from any potential covid spread throughout a country, as all islands are secluded and miles away from one another, all equipped with the latest essential medical infrastructures and modern luxuries.
(Banner Image credits: @seefromthesky)
This makes it ideal for holiday makers from around the world to spend their holidays in seclusion, complete privacy and freedom, knowing their island resort is 100% covid virus free. This in turn, is why Maldives is one of the safest destinations to be included in all countries’ travel bubbles.
What is a Travel Bubble?
Simply put, travel bubbles are exclusive agreements between two or more countries to allow travels between them, provided they are showing progress in containing their COVID-19 spread. This also allows free travels for leisure, business, and other miscellaneous purposes of travel between the countries inside the “travel bubble” agreement without doing the whole qurantine/testing of ALL guests on arrival despite having no symptoms.
Travel bubble was first coined by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, forming an agreement for their citizens to travel freely between the three neighboring countries once they managed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, the travel bubbles have been appearing all over the world, From Europe to the Asia Pacific and the Caribbeans.
Maldives opened borders Worldwide mid-July
Due to the one island, one resort concept that Maldives follows for all of their resorts, many countries have opened, and are considering bubble agreements with the Maldives as one of the most ideal holiday travel destination of choice for their citizens. It is due to this same reason that the Maldivian government is confident that they can safely open borders and welcome their guests, while taking special measures to ensure spread controls.
Read more about the Maldives Covid-19 travel procedures here.
The start of Maldives Travel Bubble Agreements
India is the most recent nation to open up its borders with Maldives, being the first country India opened for. Additionally, United States of America (US), the United Kingdom (UK), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, and Germany are also allowed to visit India. Meaning tourists from these countries can transit from India to Maldives as well. Even though Maldives’ borders have been opened worldwide from 15th July, the occupancy remains low on most resorts with over 7000 rooms vacant according to the Maldives ministry of Tourism. Guests have been welcomed safely with all necessary precautions practiced as per WHO (World Health Organization) requirements.
Other South Asian and South-east Asian countries are also soon thought to follow suit. Currently, Maldives is catering to the European and Middle-eastern markets, although resort room occupancy remain low compared to it’s normal rates.
Divide and Conquer the Pandemic
Since Each island resort is isolated in the Maldives, even if a single case is found on an island, they could simply isolate the guest to a single room and lock down the island alone. Ofcourse, lockdown means unnecessary inward and outbound transport stops (except supply trips), and the isolated guests can still have a wonderful time in their respective islands.
This method of securely opening the country for tourism has so far proven to do well in terms of curbing the spread. All potential symptomatic inbound guests have been isolated and are being treated so far.
As Maldives is heavily dependent on tourism and the massive demand for the islands around the world, it is only logical to open the borders in the safest ways possible. During the start of the pandemic in March 2020, google trends saw a 124% rise in the term “2021 holiday” in Europe , and Maldives was at the very top! From the success of this system, Maldives can truly flourish and be seen as one of the most loved post-covid holiday destinations in the world.