With the reopening of Maldives’ borders on 15th July 2020 and the increase in recent flights between Maldives and India, Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has planned several marketing activities to increase arrivals from the Indian market and regain its destination presence. To facilitate this, MMPRC has commenced two notable campaigns and participated in SATTE GenX – virtual exhibition today.
The first campaign is with India’s number one wedding network, Wedding Sutra. WeddingSutra.com is home to one of the largest wedding audiences in India. WeddingSutra.com passionately engages with brides to be on their platforms, making it the number one wedding brand on Instagram. They have over a million members on Facebook and over 2.5 million total followers on social media.
This six-month long campaign will further heighten significant awareness among the growing market of Wedding and Honeymoon segments in India. Maldives will be advertised on their social media accounts, and honeymoon stories that took place in Maldives will be amplified on their channels. The aim of this campaign is to market Maldives as one of the most preferred destinations for Indian tourists to travel to post COVID-19, especially for newly married couples and honeymooners. In this regard, the campaign will showcase special aspects of the destination, as well as available benefits in these segments.
The second campaign is a nationwide radio campaign in India, where Maldives will be promoted in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin via multi leading radio channels in each city.
This radio campaign will run from 5th to 16th October 2020. Its aim is to capture the Indian audience and promote the sunny side of life by fostering strong connections with consumers in each city. MMPRC has provided opportunities for 3 selected properties to be promoted during the campaign which will highlight the available experiences in these properties, as well as throughout Maldives. It has an estimated reach of 20.8 to 29.7 million listeners by the end of the campaign which will further enhance the visibility of the destination in greater India.
South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange; SATTE GenX is South Asia’s First Virtual Exhibition on the travel and tourism industry. Today MMPRC has taken part in this two-day virtual exhibition which provides an opportunity to interact and connect with potential buyers from India as a wide range of exhibitors from the Indian tourism industry are taking part. Maldives is showcased in a separate virtual pavilion along with 11 industry co-exhibitors. Additionally, panel discussions and webinars are held during the event.
The Air Bubble initiative which commenced on 25th August 2020 is a first for India within this region to boost tourism and has enabled a regular path with weekly flights between two countries. Flights from Air India and Indigo have started operations from New Delhi and Bangalore to Maldives and more are to be confirmed in the near future. This will aid in the much-anticipated increase in tourist arrivals from the Indian market.
Based on the arrival figures of 2019, India is ranked in the 2nd position of the highest performing markets to the Maldives. India is a key focus market in the recovery of tourism in Maldives and the target is to achieve pre-pandemic growth levels. Several marketing activities are being conducted in various key markets such as a global campaign with CNN, integrated webinar sessions in China, campaign with FVW in German speaking markets and a campaign with Travel weekly targeting the UK market. MMPRC believes that this target can only be achieved through similar activities which showcase Maldives as a safe haven with stringent health and safety measures.
