The tourism industry activity came to an abrupt halt in the second quarter of 2020 owing to Covid-19.
Moreover this decline in the review quarter was relative to the first quarter of the year and the corresponding quarter of 2019.
According to Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) the seasonally un-adjusted indexes for total revenue and resort bookings slipped by 110 points.
This is majorly due to the government ordered border closure in 27 March 2020.
Earlier, Maldives government made declaration of temporarily restricting all international travels.
Under the executive decision, government halted all on-arrival tourist visas for the duration.
Moreover, border closure remained the prime reason for the sharp contraction in tourism industry activities according to MMA’s report.
On the other hand, employment index saw a fall to -74 during review quarter, with just 26% businesses reporting no change in employment levels.
Similarly indexes for wages and other labor costs slipped by 75 points to -78 in review quarter; steepest plunge in the industry activity.
Meanwhile only 20% of businesses report no relative change in wages or other labor costs.
Index for input prices or prices paid by tourism businesses plummeted to -57 points.
Furthermore, decline in average room rates were larger transitioning a positive 20 points in first quarter to a negative -98 in review quarter.
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