Maldives Eliminates Testing For Vaccinated Visitors

More countries are eliminating testing requirements for travelers. You can add another popular tourist destination to the list.

Maldives cuts testing for vaccinated visitors

Several months into the Pandemic, the Maldives reopened to visitors. Visitors to the Maldives have been required to get tested, but that will soon change. The entry requirements for the Maldives will be changed on March 5, 2022.

• Vaccinated travelers will no longer be required to present a negative PCR test result prior to arrival
• Vaccinated tourists who stay on inhabited islands will no longer be required to present a negative PCR test on departure

This is great news, and will make visiting theMaldives a lot simpler. Travelers still need to fill out a traveler health declaration, but that is all. It is possible for individual resorts to have a testing requirement, but I think most won't.

It’s so nice to see this “return to normal”

Testing is an important tool for fighting coronaviruses, but I'm happy to see that testing requirements for travel are ending. This is the biggest thing that can be done to make international travel easier.

The concept of needing to test is great in theory, but has many problems.

• It’s still a massive money grab, with PCR tests in many places costing well over $100 per person, and in some cases $200+ if you need them on short notice
• Testing requirements are so highly uncoordinated, especially when you’re traveling to multiple destinations in a short period; it can often take hours to get tested multiple times for a bigger trip, and that doesn’t even factor in the cost
• The entire testing for travel industry is extremely shady, as I’ve outlined before

It's great to see more countries taking this approach, and especially in places like the Maldives, where testing was expensive.

Bottom line

As of March 5, 2022, the testing requirements for vaccine travelers in the Maldives will be eliminated. Travelers will no longer have to take a test for the vaccine. We have seen this trend in a lot of countries recently, so we hope it becomes the norm soon enough.

What do you think about the elimination of testing for vaccine visitors?

The tip of the hat was given to Dale.