Tourism Establishments to Register with an Online Portal

The Ministry of Tourism, on 1 June 2020, published the Regulation on Collection of Information for the Compilation of Tourism Statistics in the government gazette. The Regulation provides for the collection of tourism related information and rules on how that information would be utilized.

Under the new Regulation, all Tourist Resorts, Tourist Hotels, Tourist Guesthouses, Training Resorts, Transit Hotels, City Hotels, Yacht Marinas, and Tourist Vessels (Registered Facilities) will be required to supply the Ministry of Tourism with the information specified under Schedule 1 of the Regulation – Occupancy Report, and Tourist Arrivals categorized by Nationality – and any other information specified by the Ministry, which includes details of employees working at the facility, information requested by the Ministry with respect to a State of Emergency announced under the Disaster Management Act.

All information mandated to be submitted under the new Regulation has to be submitted via a new online portal “Tourism Information Management System (TIMS)” and all Registered Facilities are required to register on TIMS within three months from 1 June 2020.

Records of the Information submitted under the Regulation have to be kept at the Registered Facilities (except Tourist Vessels) for a period of 2 calendar years. Fines, tied to the number of registered beds and the number of offences, will be imposed on Registered Facilities that fail to comply with the Regulation.

The previous Regulation under the same name (Regulation Number 2011/R-19) has been repealed after the commencement of this new Regulation.