Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) partners with Zee Network to conduct a joint marketing campaign targeting the Middle Eastern market. This is a month-long campaign.
Under this campaign, advertisements of the Maldives will be broadcast on the two main Zee Network channels run for the middle east market, Alwan and Aflam, for a duration of 30 days. The 15-second spots will feature the Maldives as an ideal destination offering unique stay options and experiences for tourists seeking luxury, romantic, honeymoon, family, adventure vacation options. The campaign focuses on building high attention and visibility for Maldives and leveraging Zee Network’s wide network reach in the Middle East market.
Zee Network has a wide reach in the Middle East market, from local and Arab expats to all south asian audiences. Zee Alwan is an entertainment channel targeting Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, offering a variety of content. Zee Aflam is the first and leading Bollywood movie channel in the region for the Arab audience. Beyond Bollywood, Zee Aflam premieres the latest Turkish movies, all dubbed in Arabic. The Maldives advertisements on these channels during the campaign will run in between 6 different programs on Zee Aflam and 5 different programs on Zee Alwan.
This campaign is held as part of our marketing strategy for the Middle East, which targets to maintain Maldives’ brand visibility and establish Maldives as a top of the mind destination for countries in this market. The strategy is also based on promoting the uniqueness of the Maldives as the world’s leading destination and market our products including resorts, guesthouses, hotels and liveaboards as well as our unique experiences.
Last year, Maldives welcomed 91,413 tourists to the country from the Middle Eastern market with Saudi Arabia ranked as the top 7th market to Maldives. From January to February this year the country has recorded 19,022 arrivals from the Middle East market. MMPRC has planned several activities targeting the Middle East market under the effort to maintain destination visibility. This includes joint-marketing campaigns, webinars, participation in major fairs and exhibitions, roadshows, and hosting familiarization trips.
As the company responsible for marketing the Maldives as a destination abroad, MMPRC carried out 260 different marketing activities in 22 global markets last year, including fairs, roadshows, familiarization trips, marketing campaigns, webinars, and interviews. The greatest testament to the success of these activities came late last year, as the Maldives secured the title of ‘World’s Leading Destination’ (among several other accolades) at the 2021 World Travel Awards, globally recognised as the hallmark of industry excellence. This is the second consecutive year that the Maldives had successfully earned this prestigious title, a shining testimony of the trust placed in the ‘magic of Maldivian hospitality’ by travelers from all over the globe.
This year also celebrates an exceptional year to visit the Maldives – the Golden Jubilee celebration of tourism in the Maldives kicked off earlier last year with plans to conduct new and exciting activities throughout the year.