2016 is 'Visit Maldives Year', we asked Haris Mohamed, Acting Managing Director of Maldives Marketing and PR Company, what promotions are to be organised around this event.
'Visit Maldives Year' is a destination marketing campaign that has been declared for 2016 coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of Independence of the Maldives. One of the important targets of “Visit Maldives Year” is to reach 1.5 million tourist arrivals to the country. VMY 2016 was officially launched by H.E President Abdulla Yaameen Abdul Gayyoom.
Different promotional campaigns and activities have been planned which would take place both locally and internationally. Among them, one of the major events is partnering with ITB as the host country for 2016.
ITB will also be marking their Golden Jubilee next year and it would create a very important message to the global tourism industry. And this will give the opportunity to promote the Visit Maldives Year to a larger audience as ITB is the biggest travel and tourism event that takes place in the world and all the important names within the tourism industry of the world will be visiting ITB.
In addition, Europe being the most vital regional markets to the Maldives, this partnership will boost arrivals and sustain a healthy market share and at the same time strengthen the image of Maldives in the German-speaking countries.
Other activities that can be enjoyed by visitors include 100 islands in 30 days, mega wedding, international surf competition, 100K tourist celebration, a free diving competition and a photo competition. Also, there will be many other opportunities for visitors to win fabulous free holiday prizes.
What kind of growth have you seen in 2015, and what are your projections for the next year(s)?
The Maldives started tourism with only 2 resorts in 1972. It began with just 280 beds. Our destination has grown so huge that by today we could proudly say we have over 100 resorts. This is such a great achievement for our tourism growth.
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