Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), on Wednesday, announced that Visit Maldives is taking part in the Asian series of TravMedia's virtual International Media Marketplace (IMM).
This year, the two-day IMM Virtual Asia is held from October 27 to 28, and is one of the major networking events which connects to the leading media and travel brands.
According to MMPRC, this year’s IMM Virtual Asia will transport editors and journalists from all over Asia
to the same platform.
Key publications such as CNN Travel, Robb Report, Tatler Asia, Condé Nast Traveller, South China Morning Post will take part during this event.
The marketing corporation noted that this virtual marketplace, therefore, provides the opportunity to promote the Maldives by introducing initiatives such as the Rediscover Maldives campaign and the upcoming Maldives Border Mile program.
“Most importantly, this also enables the destination to provide updates on the latest information regarding the current situation and safety measures taken on the geographically dispersed archipelago”, MMPRC said, adding that they can also convey that the measures taken along with the unique “one-island-one resort” concept has created a safe haven for the tourists which resulted in Maldives receiving its ‘Safe Travels Stamp’.
Furthermore, MMPRC stated that the introduction of the first COVID-19 insurance for tourists will be highlighted and Allied Inbound, initiated by the Allied insurance along with the Ministry of Tourism, has provided that additional boost to ensure that all visitors are welcome to ‘Rediscover Maldives’.
In addition to the IMM virtual fair, Visit Maldives has also taken part in the German edition of TravMedia IMM Virtual held in September to provide the latest information of the destination to the German speaking Markets.
Similarly, several initiatives have been taken within the Asian region in order to build travellers’ confidence and maintain the destination presence, including participating in fairs such as OTR Virtual, the joint campaign with WeddingSutra for India, Luxury Virtual roadshow for RunTour and integrated webinar sessions in China.
As situations improve, Maldives has also hosted several familiarization trips for markets such as India, Middle East and more for the future. To maintain the market presence on a global scale, Visit Maldives has also successfully concluded the Rediscover Maldives webinar series in travel trade and is currently conducting a campaign with CNN.
MMPRC highlighted that the Asian region contains some of the major key markets for the Maldives.
“China, for instance, remains as one of the biggest source markets having a total of 31،744 tourist arrivals in January 2020. The Chinese market is expected to increase exponentially when outbound travel is permitted”.
“Meanwhile, India shows promising growth since the establishment of the travel corridor with the Maldives. With the gradual increase of flight connectivity, India maintains its position within the top 10 markets with an overall total of 35,375 arrival from January till September 2020”.
As with numerous countries around the world, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives closed its air and sea borders to tourist arrivals from March 27 to July 15.
The restrictions on international travel left Maldives' heavily tourism reliant economy in an extremely vulnerable state. In mid-April, the World Bank projected that Maldives would be the worst-hit economy in the South Asian region due to the pandemic.