Coronavirus: Maldives welcomes rich Indians, Bollywood stars even as others ban flights amid brutal second wave

While a string of countries banned visitors from India, the Maldives government made only slight changes to its rules for tourists from its neighbour

Bollywood stars escaping the global virus epicentre in recent weeks include Alia Bhatt and Shraddha Kapoor

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Indians remained the largest single group of visitors to the Maldives this year. File photo: Getty Images

Published: 7:30pm, 1 May 2021Updated: 7:37pm, 1 May 2021

The Maldives is still welcoming Bollywood stars and other rich Indians to its secluded beaches and crystal-clear lagoons even as countries ban flights because of a brutal Covid-19 surge.

The Indian Ocean archipelago of more than a thousand islands reopened its international borders in mid-July after being shut for three months, and Indians have accounted for the most visitors.

This week, as a string of other countries banned visitors from India, the Maldives government made only slight changes to its rules for passengers from its giant neighbour.

Holidaymakers arriving from India now can only stay at a resort or a safari boat and are not allowed to check into guest houses in inhabited islands where locals also live.

“The geographical location of our islets help us to minimise the [virus] risk,” Thoyyib Mohamed, the head of the country’s tourism authority, Visit Maldives, said.

“Each islet is a self-contained single resort. Even if we have a few cases popping up here and there, we can contain it within the resorts without exposing the local population.”