Thomas Cook cancels first group of tourists scheduled to arrive in Herathere

| DATE: 2007-11-07 |

MALE, November 7, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- The first group of tourists scheduled to arrive in Herathere Resort and Spa, Addu atoll’s first tourist resort, has been cancelled because the work on the resort is still not completed. Consequently, the opening of the resort has also been delayed.

The first group of tourists were scheduled to arrive in Herathere this morning at 7:45am. However Thomas Cook, the travel company in charge of handling tourists to the resort checked the island yesterday, pronounced it not ready for tourist visits and cancelled the first group of tourists well after 12:00am today. By then the 195 tourists scheduled to arrive in Herathere from Germany via the Condor flight had already begun their journey to Addu atoll Gan. The plane was redirected to Male International Airport at Hulhule and the passengers dispersed to other resorts.

“Thomas Cook officials came to Herathere one week ago also,” said Haveeru reporter Ahmed Saeed who had gone to Gan to cover the completion of the Gan International Airport and the tourist arrivals in Herathere. “After seeing how far work had progressed they were of the opinion that Herathere would be ready by 7th November. They checked out the island last night also. It was after that they had held a meeting with the high-ranking officials of the Tourism Ministry and the Maldives Tourism Development Cooperation and pronounced that the resort was not ready to cater to tourists yet.”

It is unknown when tourists will arrive in Herathere as a date has not been confirmed yet. Earlier, the next Condor flight to bring tourists to Herathere had been scheduled to arrive on 14 November.

According to a Tourism Ministry official, the first group of tourists scheduled to arrive in Herathere had been cancelled by Thomas Cook, fearing that that if the first group of tourists weren’t satisfied with their stay in Herathere, it could lead to cancellations by the next group of tourists scheduled to arrive. However, according to MTDC the resort was completed and ready.