The ash cloud spread across the Europe due to Iceland’s volcanic eruption is preventing tourist arrivals and departure from the Maldives, as several flights were canceled within the last three days, government authorities have reported.

Airports Company said 16 scheduled flights, including flights of British Airways, Monaca, Condo, Air Berlin, Meridiana and Sri Lankan Airlines have been canceled from last Saturday to Tuesday.

“Four flights have been canceled today as of now,” an official of Airports Company said.

Tourism Ministry, Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), along with other parties involved in tourism industry held a meeting yesterday, to negotiate about the issues being faced by the stranded tourists.

“We agreed to initiate a hot-line and a communication channel. We will be providing the details to the resorts tomorrow and will be collecting the information about the stranded tourists,” Tourism Minister Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad said, speaking to Haveeru yesterday.

“We will be able to collect all the information about the canceled flights and charter flights, when we establish this hot-line with Airports Company.”

He further noted the tourists and tour operators would not get the refund.

Officials of the airlines noted they could provide the opportunity for stranded tourists to visit other destinations, and added that resorts, tourist hotels and safaris should provide special rates to the tourists who are unable to leave the country, Minister Sawad added.

Tourism Ministry said around 1000 tourists from each tour operator are unable to leave the country.

MTPB stressed that the number of tourist arrivals would be much lower, compared to the projected number.

“We estimated a 25 percent increase this month [compared to last April]. So we are now estimating an 18 percent increase, as around 5000 seats would be canceled,” Deputy Director of the board, Mohamed Niyaz said.

While 57,186 tourists visited Maldives in April 2009, Tourism Ministry projected 71,482 tourists to visit Maldives this April.

Around 30 European countries shut down their airspace six days ago, due to the ash cloud spread across the region due to Iceland’s volcanic eruption that occurred last Thursday.

While France allowed a gradual resumption of flights, European Union said some airlines would be allowed to resume its flights Tuesday and the operation of all airlines would be restored within this week.

Source: Haveeru News Service www.haveeru.com.mv

The Maldives has been awarded as the “Best Diving Area” and “Best Dreaming Area” in the Dive & Travel Awards 2010 held during the Marine Diving Fair, Tokyo, Japan from 02 – 04th April 2010. The voting was carried out amongst the readers of the both magazines targeted to the divers; “Travel Diver” and “Marine Diving” , based on the “Reader’s Choice Award”

Maldives won the “Best Diving Area” after competing with the world famous dive favourites Palau and Ishigaakee Island. The competitors for the “Best Dreaming Area” include Palau and French Polynesia.

The awards were collected by the Maldives High Commissioner to Japan, Hon. Mr. Amir Khaleel.

Apart from the above “Island Safari Royal” and “Soleil” from the Maldives won 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the “Best Liveaboard” category.

Marine Dive Fair remains as the largest fair held in Japan targeted to the divers creating an opportunity to decide and arrange their dive holidays.

Hon. Mr. Amir Khaleel was the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the Marine Diving Fair. In his speech noted was the issue of the global warming and its impact to the Maldives and expressed his supported for the Japanese campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25% by the year 2020. He also thanked the Marine Arts Centre for their hard work in creating awareness amongst the public about the protection of the underwater.

A quiz is carried in the Maldives stand daily making it popular by having more visitors attending to participate in the quiz. This year it is expected that a total of 50,000 would visit the fair. Together with Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, Villa hotels, Sun hotels, Bandos Island Resort & Spa, Diva Maldives, Conrad Maldives and Travel Agencies; Vista Company & Travel Services, Crown Tours, Intour Maldives and Intourist Maldives participated in the fair

Source: www.visitmaldives.com