Maldives tourism organized a record making free-diving event attended by over 500 divers

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih attended the event of free-diving upto 3 meters for 30 seconds, also aimed to promote tourism in Maldives. Officials of Guinness declared the event as a new world record and presented the official certificate to President Solih. The earlier record was for the most people freediving simultaneously at Verona in 2009 with 280 people.

Indians have contributed immensely to tourism growth in Maldives this year and a total of 104,242 tourists from India visited Maldives between January and August this year, an increase of 100% over the corresponding period last year. India has moved up from the 5th to 2nd position in terms of tourist arrivals in the first half of 2019 and claims approximately 9.5% of the total tourism market share in Maldives.

Union minister of tourism Shri Prahlad Singh Patel is expected to visit Maldives in November to further promote tourism linkages and cooperation between India and the Maldives. Bilateral relations between the two neighbours have vastly improved since the change of regime last year when President Solih took over. The two countries signed a new visa agreement earlier this year to ease travel conditions and improve people to people contacts.