‘Visit, vaccinate, vacation’: The country offering tourists COVID jabs on arrival

The Maldives Tourism board said it will offer tourists COVID-19 vaccinations on arrival once residents have received their shots. 

Dubbed 3V for “visit, vaccinate and vacation” the new tourism campaign would promote the Maldives as a safe place to visit.

The Maldives has remained open to tourists during the pandemic with many booking longer, remote working stays.

According to the Reuters Vaccination tracker, the Maldives has currently vaccinated 30 per cent of the population, compared to Australia’s 2.9 per cent. 

3V tourism

Maldivian Tourism Minister Abdulla Mausoom told CNBC the country has vaccinated 90 per cent of frontline workers and about half of the population had received their first shot. 

“The main idea of tourism being open is to provide reasonably safe tourism with minimum inconvenience,” Mausoom said.

“So once the country gets vaccinated, then we will move on to ‘3V’ tourism.”

Mausoon did not give a timeline for the Maldives COVID vaccinations on arrival to begin.

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The Maldives vaccine

The Maldives has received most of its vaccination doses from India and China.

“We have got enough supply for the local population, the resident population, so once that is done … we will have enough (to vaccinate tourists),” Mausoom said. 

Tourism economy

Tourism accounts for 28 per cent of the Maldives economy, by far the largest sector, according to Michigan State University. 

At least 1.7 million tourists visited the Maldives in 2019. That number fell to just 550,000 arrivals in 2020.

The Maldives currently requires tourists to present a negative PCR test for COVID-19 on arrival, taken within 96 hours of travel.

Fully vaccinated guests who have received their second dose of a Covid jab at least 14 days before travel do not need to show proof of a PCR test.

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