Call to promote guest-house businesses while having called for the boycott of Maldives tourism is concerning: Adheeb

Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb has said that it is concerning that the former president Mohamed Nasheed continues to advocate to promote guest-house businesses while he had previously called for the boycott Maldives tourism.

Speaking to Sun today, the Minister said that it is worrying and that it does not make sense that while the former president had called for tourists to boycott Maldives on famous international newspapers such as the Financial Times, that he is now calling to promote guest house businesses in the Maldives.

“President Nasheed had made a global call to boycott Maldives tourism, and now he is calling to promote guesthouse businesses, targeted at Maldives tourism. This does not make sense,” Tourism Minister said.

In relation to the former president’s statement that he will grant the management of the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) to an international bidder, Adheeb said that there was a significant reduction of airlines willing to operate to the airport during the time it was managed by Indian infrastructure giant GMR, during former president Nasheed’s term of office.

He continued to note that the majority of guest houses registered in the Maldives have been registered during the current regime and said that the current government will always work to promote guest house businesses in the Maldives.

While the current tourism Minister has chosen to criticize the very fundamentals of the MDP’s policy on guest-house businesses announced today, MDP’s presidential candidate and former president Mohamed Nasheed has said that MDP will win the upcoming presidential election and that subsequently, the MDP government will introduce subsidized financial schemes and allocate plots towards further developing guest-house buisnesses, and that MDP’s will be to for every individual citizen to benefit from Maldives tourism.