Maldives Marketing a Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), along with Sun Siyam Resorts and Voyages Maldives, are participating in TTG Travel Experience 2020, the one of the largest travel fairs in Italy.
The three-day fair, held in Rimini from October 14-16, is the first tourism expo where Maldives is represented since the island nation reopened borders on July 15.
Noting that Italy is a major market for Maldives, MMPRC stated that the TTG Travel Experience will increase the visibility of Maldives and thus boost the number of tourist arrivals from Italy.
"This will also provide many opportunities to showcase Maldives as a safe destination to travel to, and ensure tourists and travel and tourism professionals that Maldives remains a safe haven during these unprecedented times", said the tourism promotion body.
MMPRC added that industry professionals from Maldives will meet top travel trade partners and media from Italy to further enhance Maldives' presence as a holiday destination within the Italian market.
TTG Travel Experience 2019 recorded over 44,000 visitors with more than 2,131 exhibitors from 90 countries represented at the fair.
Prior to Maldives' four-month lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy was the top market in 2020 with 52,848 tourist arrivals recorded until March, which was an increase of 11.7 percent compared to the same period of 2019.
In addition to Italy, MMPRC has mobilised several campaigns to promote Maldivian tourism across several regions, including the Middle East, the United Kingdom, India, South Korea and Ukraine.
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 from March 27 to 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.
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