Govt. targets 13 new resorts and two million tourists for 2020

Tourism Minister Ali Waheed has said that the government is aiming to open 13 new resorts in 2020 and will target two million tourist arrivals.

The minister gave details of the projects carried out in 2019 and those planned for 2020 at the “Burabi” convocation held last night.

He stated that 143 resorts were registered in the country when the administration came to power. The figure has now been increased to 164 with 21 new openings in 2019. The government is also targeting to bring two million tourists to the country and open 13 new resorts with a bed capacity of 4127 in 2020, according to the Minister.

The targeted number of arrivals for 2019 was 1.5 million. The targeted number has now been surpassed with the country seeing 1.6 million arrivals up until December 15, 2019.

130 tourist facilities were opened in 2019, according to the Minister who stated that the figure included 21 resorts and 101 guesthouses. The occupancy rates of the country in 2019 stood at 62 percent which is a slight increase of 0.01 percent when compared with 2018, noted the Minister.