Visit Maldives, on Thursday, welcomed a group of top travel agents from India, as part of the ongoing series of Rediscover Maldives familiarisation trips.
Intended to promote Maldives as a tourist destination, the trip will involve the provision of extensive information on various products and offers as well as safety measures being implemented.
This is the second group to arrive from India on a familiarisation trip following the reopening of Maldives' borders and the first trip specifically organised for travel agents from the Indian market.
Representatives of leading travel agents in India, which curate highly personalized travel experiences from Maldives to the Indian market, were included in the team.
The team consists of senior members from Signature Tours, N Chirag Travels, Quintessential Vacations, The Pravasi and World of Vacation.
Blue horizon liveaboard, Robinson Club Noonu and Conrad Maldives Rangali Island are scheduled to host the team between December 10 to 16. Throughout the period, the individuals will be given the opportunity to experience unique services from each property and explore Maldives on a liveaboard cruising trip.
In addition to the familiarisation trip, Visit Maldives is currently conducting several marketing activities targeted towards the Indian market. Some of these activities include a campaign focused for honeymoon segments, a campaign with VOOT and a celebrity Instagram conference.
The Indian market ranked second in terms of tourist arrivals following the reopening of borders.
According to Visit Maldives, the initiation of the travel bubble, increase in the volume of flights and various marketing campaigns are expected to cause a boost in arrivals from India.
Overall, Visit Maldives has carried out over 412 different marketing activities to promote Maldives across 22 global markets, including virtual fairs, webinars, FAM trips, online roadshows, outdoor campaigns, digital media campaigns and more.
Notable campaigns such as the online roadshow in China, global advertising campaign with Skyscanner and a global media campaign in various markets were held as well.
As of November 30, 2020, Maldives recorded a total of 468,693 annual arrivals from different markets, and since the borders reopened, arrivals have been slowly picking up for the destination with 85,846 arrivals in total.
Maldives reopened its borders to international passengers on July 15, after nearly four months since the state halted issuing on-arrival visas on March 27. Guesthouses were permitted to resume operations and kick start local tourism on October 15.
Although Maldives has noted a significant reduction in tourist arrivals compared to pre-COVID figures, the numbers have maintained a steady upward slope indicating a stable increase, but the country has a long way to go before pre-pandemic figures are achieved.
Prior to the border closure as a preventive measure amidst the ongoing pandemic, Maldives recorded an average of 4,200 visitors on the daily.
However, the Minister of Tourism earlier expressed hopes for the industry's recovery, estimating that 100,000 tourists would visit Maldives before the end of 2020. The tourism ministry expects a total of 500,000 arrivals for the year.
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