Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) took part in the International Media Marketplace from 29th – 30th September 2020. This is one of the leading media events for the travel trade in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The two-day event was held virtually to promote the Maldives to top-tier media and provide information regarding current marketing efforts and measures undertaken for the safety of visitors during the post-pandemic travel. The media who took part in the event has an overall reach of millions across the German speaking markets. This included publications such as Die Welt, Front Row Society, Diners Club, Moments magazine, Schweiz am Wochenende newspaper, and the radio station, Audiotravels on iHeartRadio, to name a few. This also provided an opportunity to further promote the destination to these markets including the recently launched campaigns of Rediscover Maldives as well as the Maldives Border Miles.
Similarly, to provide the most updated information about the destination, the Rediscover Maldives webinar series was carried out this month in 4 sessions targeting travel trade and media in key source markets across the globe. This is one initiative amongst the several activities carried out by MMPRC to build traveller confidence in the destination as a ‘safe haven’ for tourists. More joint promotional campaigns with key stakeholders in global markets as well as activities on digital platforms are also being planned for the year to maintain the destination presence.
The German speaking countries have always been traditional source markets of tourist arrivals to the Maldives with Germany ranking in the top 5 in 2019. Before the closure of borders on 27th March 2020, there were 28,228 arrivals from Germany, 9,170 arrivals from Switzerland and 6,917 arrivals from Austria. Both Germany and Switzerland ranked amongst the top 10 source markets of tourist arrivals within this period.