Special tourist island and yacht marina in Hulhumale’ will revolutionize Maldivian tourism industry : Simon

Muhammad Simon, the MD of HDC have said that the tourism industry of Maldives will be revolutionized with the development of tourist island and yacht marina in Hulhumale’.

Speaking to Miadhu News, Simon said that they have reclaimed land for the yacht marina area and right now they are in the process of choosing a contractor for the project. He said that with the second phase of the project, the yacht marina, special tourist island and the heritage village will be connected.

Simon said that the tourist island will be developed with world class facilities. “ There will be different restaurants and shopping centers as well. In addition, there will be many other interesting activities for tourists in heritage center as well “ said Simon.

He further said that around 18 Cruisers visit Maldives annually even without any of these services and when these services are introduced the figure will increase significantly.

“Since there is no harbor now, they have to use a small boat to access the island. Also problems are created because tourists go to the artificial beach. Even with all these challenges, the cruisers still visit Maldives” said Simon.

With the yacht marina, the tourism industry of Maldives is expected to develop. Even now many tourists visit Maldives by sea. There were many vessels with tourists in Male’ harbor this year.

Vessels do not visit Maldives often due to lack of adequate facilities even though the tourism industry in Maldives is celebrating the 40th anniversary.

President Yameen’s government is working hard to develop facilities that can cater for yachts and cruise liners. With the development of these facilities in Hulhumale’ passenger lines and yachts can easy access the island and hence number of yachts and cruise liners visiting Maldives is expected to increase.

If we look at Sri Lanka, last year 2.5 million visited Sri Lanka by sea. With the facilities in Maldives, even Maldives have the potential to increase the number of tourists to Maldives by sea.