Guesthouses Surge as Maldives Tourism Diversifies Beyond Luxury Resorts
Resorts remain the backbone of Maldives tourism, capturing roughly 68.8% of all visitor arrivals across the country's 1,344 registered tourist establishments and 68,731 available beds — a stock that runs at an extraordinary 99.8% operational availability. But guesthouses, concentrated on inhabited local islands, are quietly taking a growing share of the market, now accounting for around 26% of arrivals.
The shift reflects a broader change in who is visiting the Maldives and how they choose to experience it. Islands such as Maafushi in Kaafu Atoll — home to the popular Bikini Beach swimming area — along with Ukulhas in North Ari Atoll, Thoddoo in Ari Atoll, and Dhigurah in Alifu Dhaalu Atoll have become established stops for travelers who want reef access, diving and manta ray or whale shark encounters without resort pricing.
For a destination long associated almost exclusively with five-star private islands, the guesthouse boom marks a meaningful diversification of the Maldives tourism product — and an opening for local-island communities to capture more direct tourism revenue.