As the country commands a state of emergency at the capital city of Maldives, thousands of tourists have started cancelling their booking at the Maldives hotels and resorts. Even though the government has assured that there are no issues at the resorts of the islands, tourists are still not convinced, says the tour operators.
The emergency situation was announced by the President of Maldives. He issued this situation when the judges asked him to free the opposition leaders from jail. He has also order arrest of these judges. After the order of emergency, United States, India, United Kingdom and China have issued warnings to tourists who were intending to travel to this country.
A spokesperson from Paradise Island Resorts informed that there have been as many as 50 to 60 room cancellations each day after the announcement was made. This is the same scenario across all their resorts through the country. The brand has a resort with 282 rooms which is located just at 20 minutes from the place where the emergency has started; this place is known as Male.
Tourism is one of the primary occupations of the people at Maldives and contributed to $3.5 billion in the GDP growth of the country, which is almost one third of the total growth rate.
The rating agencies like Moody has decided to decrease their target of GDP growth rate than 4.5% if tourists do not turn up for a longer time span. The opposition has requested India’s military assistance in controlling the situation; this has fuelled the fear of the tourists. India is considered to be the most powerful region in South Asia and this nation with 400,000 populations is majorly a Muslim state. The shipping lines of Maldives have also been a cause of fight between India and China for years now.
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