Season’s first cruiseliner in Maldives with over 2,000 passengers

The first cruiseliner of the season arrived in the Maldives with 2,779 passengers on Sunday.

‘MS AIDAstella’ docked at Male’ harbor at 11:00am on Sunday morning with 2,140 passengers and 639 crew members.

Maldives Association of Yacht Agents (MAYA) said the passengers go ashore for visits to islands over the next two days.

Speaking with Sun, MAYA’s President Mohamed Nasheed said the cruiseliner arrived in the Maldives from Oman’s capital, Muscat, and will remain in the Maldives for two days before heading to its next destination; Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo.

As per Nasheed, 14 or 15 cruiseliners are expected to arrive in the Maldives during this season. While the season is expected to conclude in March, Nasheed said the forecasted arrivals of cruisliners are much lower than hoped by the Association.

Prior to this, MAYA has expressed concern over cruiseliners and yachts due to arrive in the Maldives canceling amid delays by the Tourism Ministry in amending the regulation.

The current regulation significantly limits the number of days yachts and cruisliners can remain in the Maldives. Moreover, vessels do not receive any services during the period they harbor in the Maldives.

As such, Nasheed stressed that there will be no significant benefits or revenue from the prevailing season nor the previous one.

However, he noted that the Tourism Ministry had amended the regulations after the current administration assumed office and in this trajectory, expressed hope of a better outlook for next year’s season.