Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) on Wednesday announced that the island nation was conferred the 'Dream Dive Destination award at the 'Dive and Travel Awards' hosted by the Marine Diving Fair 2020.
Marking the 12th consecutive year the island nation has won the award at the annual scuba diving and beach resorts fair held in Tokyo, Japan, Maldives continues to maintain its stronghold as the premier destination for diving enthusiasts around the world.
"The Marine Diving Fair has been a great platform to strengthen the market presence of Maldives in Japan and Southeast Asia region", said MMPRC.
As per MMPRC's statistics, the Japanese market is ranked 10th on tourist arrivals to Maldives based on data collected until February 2020.
By the end of February, 4,052 Japanese arrivals were recorded, highlighting a growth of 2.4 percent compared to the previous year. In 2019 alone, a total of 44,251 tourists arrived from Japan, which was a reported 4.6 percent in growth from 2018.
MMPRC continuously invests in marketing activities in the Japanese market and other global markets, focusing on digital advertising opportunities, including its 'Rediscover Maldives campaign'.
As with numerous countries around the world, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives closed its air and sea borders to tourist arrivals on March 27, halting the issuance of on-arrival visas until July 15.
The restrictions on international travel left Maldives' heavily tourism reliant economy in an extremely vulnerable state. In mid-April, the World Bank projected that Maldives would be the worst-hit economy in the South Asian region due to the pandemic.
Following the reopening of borders, Maldives had noted a significant reduction compared to pre-COVID figures with tourist arrivals for July 2020 representing only 1.3 percent of arrivals recorded in 2019.
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