Parliament recommends no additional fees, no quarantine for tourists

The Parliament, on Wednesday, recommended the government against imposing any additional fees and compelling tourists to undergo mandatory quarantine when the country reopens its borders to tourists in July - measures the government has already announced it will not impose.

The recommendations were made following Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee’s review of draft guidelines on ‘safe tourism’ submitted by the Tourism Ministry.

The committee’s report was called to vote during the parliamentary sitting on Wednesday afternoon.

However, prior to the vote, North Hithadhoo MP Mohame Aslam presented two revisions to the report.

The first revision was to recommend that tourists not be imposed any additional fees, and the second revision was that tourists be allowed to enter the country without needing to undergo quarantine.

The revisions passed with the unanimous vote of 55 parliamentarians present at the time, and the report, along with the revisions, was passed with the unanimous vote of 59 parliamentarians.

Following the vote, Parliament’s Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed announced that the report will be shared with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and his administration sometime this Wednesday.

He said the report will also be translated to English and released as a statement.

The draft guidelines reviewed by the committee had contained additional fees which have since been discarded.

While Tourism Ministry has announced plans to reopen the country’s borders to tourists in July, it has yet to announce a specific date.

The Tourism Ministry has also yet to release the final guidelines, but has announced that tourists will be issued on-arrival visa without any conditions, and will not be imposed additional fees and will not be required to undergo mandatory quarantine.