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 27-28 October 2020, and is one of the major networking events which connects to the leading media and travel brands.
This year’s IMM Virtual Asia will be transporting editors and journalists from all over Asia; from China to India, and many more, to the same platform. Key publications such as CNN Travel, Robb Report, Tatler Asia, Condé Nast Traveller, South China Morning Post, will be taking part during this event. This 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. Additionally, convey that the measures taken along with the unique “one-island-one resort” concept has created a safe haven for the tourists which resulted Maldives to be receiving it’s ‘Safe Travels Stamp’. Further to this, the introduction of the first COVID-19 insurance for tourists will be highlighted; 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.
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 traveller’s confidence and maintain the destination presence. This includes participation 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 as currently conducting a campaign with CNN. 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.