Government resigned to missing target of 1.5m tourist arrivals
Tourism Minister Zameer blamed the opposition’s alleged scaremongering about religious extremism in the Maldives for lower than anticipated arrivals growth. Bad press in international media about Maldivian jihadis in Syria was more damaging that an Al Jazeera corruption expose aired earlier this month, he said.
28 Sep 2016, 9:00 AM
Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer has conceded that the government’s target of 1.5 million tourist arrivals in 2016 will not be met, blaming the opposition’s alleged scaremongering about religious extremism in the Maldives.
“There are challenges in tourist arrivals. Growth hasn’t been what we anticipated,” he told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the revised target is now 1.4 million arrivals.
“More dangerous than the Al Jazeera [corruption exposé Stealing Paradise] is the damage from talk of Maldives as a terrorist nation.”
The opposition’s claim that the Maldives is the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to militant groups in Syria has been widely reported since late 2014. But the government maintains that the figure has been inflated to lobby for international support.
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