Switzerland marks Maldives as safe for travel

Switzerland has marked Maldives as safe for travel, meaning travellers from Maldives to Switzerland will no longer be subjected to mandatory 10-day quarantine upon arrival.

Maldives was removed from Switzerland’s high-risk countries list this Thursday.

Switzerland is a key market for tourist arrivals to Maldives, and had ranked 13th top source market last year.

Swiss luxury airline, Edelweiss Air is among international airlines which have resumed operations to Maldives, providing a direct link between Male’ and Zurich.

The decision by Swiss government to mark Maldives as safe for travel comes after the island destination was recently added to UK’s Global Safe Travel List and Qatar’s Green List.

Maldives closed its borders in face of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 27 and reopened its borders nearly four months later, on July 15. The destination has recorded over 31,000 tourist arrivals since.

Maldives received the Safe Travels stamp granted by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) back in September, and is currently open to all tourists, provided they have proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken maximum 96 hours before departure from their original destination.