The Maldives is to open a $100 million integrated resort project by 2016, including the creation of 23 hotels and an estimated 2,100 new beds.

The resort, called Thumburi, is designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises in the Maldives gain access to business opportunities in the tourism sector. It is hoped it will help increase visitor numbers to the Maldives by more than 150,000 a year by 2017.

“The market had become quite stagnant, as there were not many new hotels on the way and we were becoming perceived as a place just for five-star tourists. This addresses those issues and for the first time enables small businesses to invest; in fact we are actively discouraging the main existing resort owners from being a part of Thumburi,” said Abdulla Ziyath, the managing director of Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation.

“We announced the plans in June and 80% of all the hotels have already been bid for,” he added.

The project is being created in the north of the country in the largely uninhabited atoll of Laamu, which currently only has a Six Senses resort. The development will be spread across the islands of Thumburi and Hulhiyandhoo, which are among the largest natural ones in the country.

The Thumburi project is expected to create more than 4,000 new jobs and will be split across three accommodation types, including boutique beach hotels and smaller beach hotels. Of the 23 hotels, 10 of them will be 25 rooms, five will be 50 rooms and three will be 100-room hotels with overwater bungalows.

The hotels will be supported by two beach clubs, three dive and watersports centres, six speciality restaurants, two spa and wellness centres and two shopping sites. It is thought there will also be a Gordon Ramsay restaurant.

It is expected the price range of the hotels will be between $150-300 per room - “We want it to be attractive for a wide range of customers,” said Ziyath.

No building will be over four storeys - “the size of a palm tree” - and all developments will have to abide by strict environmental guidelines.

Guests at the new will be flown from Male International Airport to Kadhoo airport on domestic scheduled flights with Maldivian, the government-run airline, and FlyMe - both of which are expected to invest in new 50-seater aircraft to service demand.

They will then be transferred by speedboat from the airport to the hotels, which will decide whether to use their own speedboats, or a system of small ferries that will also be introduced to move guests around.

The hotels will be plugged into infrastructure which the government is creating at an investment of around $10-15 million.

It’s also believed plans are underway to develop another runway at the main international airport in Male.

“Demand is definitely there for Maldives, we just have to capitalize on it,” said Ziyath.

China is now the number one market for tourists to the Maldives, with the total number of visitors expected to hit 1.5 million for 2014 for the first time; the figure was 1 million in 2013. Germany and the UK are the next biggest markets.