Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), participated in a webinar carried out by Foltour, a travel agency based in the North of Italy (Piedmont Region) on 13th October 2020.
The Maldives was presented live on a platform to provide up to date information of the destination including unique experiences, accommodation options, to-do activities in the Maldives and the travel guidelines. Maldives was also promoted on the official Facebook page of the Travel Agency and on their YouTube channel. A total of 15 travel agencies and their clients participated in the webinar. The major objective of this online session was to present the Maldives as a safe haven and a dream destination which looks forward to welcoming the Italian travelers to Maldives.
Before the closure of the borders, Italy was ranked as the number one market in terms of tourist arrivals. Till March 2020, a total of 52,848 tourists arrived in Maldives, which is an increase of 11.7% compared to the same period of 2019. Aside from exhibiting at BIT earlier this year, several activities were conducted such as outdoor advertising on airport screens and taxis, print advertisements and webinars with major Italian stakeholders such as Easy Market, Sporting Vacanze and Travel Network. The Maldives was also represented at TTG Travel Experience in Rimini, Italy this month – the very first fair in which the destination exhibited after the reopening of the borders.
Additionally, other major marketing activities are also being conducted in key markets such as the global campaign with CNN, integrated webinar sessions in China, campaign with FVW in German speaking markets and campaign with Travel weekly targeting the UK market which has 1.5 million-page views. Many FOC opportunities are also being utilised to promote the Maldives in an effort to regain the destination presence during the pandemic.