Maldives is showcased at FITUR 2021, the leading international travel and tourism market held in Spain. During the event held from 19th - 23rd May 2021, Visit Maldives  aims to create destination awareness and increase the arrival numbers to Maldives. 5 industry tourism establishments will take part in the event alongside Visit Maldives. 

Maldives is represented at an attractive 72 sqm stand designed specially to represent the beauty and wonder of Maldives through colorful imagery and videos. The unique geographical formation of Maldives and the safety provided by the scattered islands of Maldives will be emphasized and highlighted at the stand through eye-catching promotional videos on an LED TV screen. In addition, a quiz regarding details on Maldives  will be held at the stand to entice travelers and winners will receive a goodie bag. 

In line with the Visit Maldives’ health and safety guidelines for in-person events to ensure health and safety of everyone, the Maldives stand is configured to accommodate restricted numbers of visitors at one given time as well as regularly sanitised surfaces. 

The 5-day event welcomes both trade visitors and professionals from the tourism industry as well as the general public who come for first-hand information about the destination. The trade fair is open exclusively to trade visitors on the first three days and the general public is invited for the weekend. During 2020, FITUR surpassed the previously held record with an audience of 11,040 companies representing 165 countries, 150,011 trade visitors, 111,809 visitors from the general public as well as over 5,300 media representatives. 

FITUR presents the opportunity for the global travel trade to meet, network, maintain old business relationships and build new ones. The participants alongside Visit Maldives will have the opportunity to present their latest products and experiences as well as taking part in one-on-one meetings, seminars, networking sessions and more. 

As of March 2021, Maldives has welcomed over 3,400 travelers from the Spanish market ranking the market as the 18th top market to Maldives. With the mass vaccination drives and easing of travel restrictions, it is hopeful that the arrival figure from Spain will increase within the next few months.  As of 15th May 2021, the Maldives has welcomed a total of 428,400 travelers. 

Furthermore, Visit Maldives is currently conducting a digital campaign with Passporter APP, a leading travel application in the Spain market  to create awareness of the destination and to reach a large audience through influencers with large followerbases.  Other activities in the pipeline include media and media fam trips and roadshows to target the Spanish market.

Maldives reopened its borders for tourists of all nationalities on 15th July 2020, with rigorous procedures in place to ensure the safety of tourists and tourism workers. Tourists are required to fill an online health declaration form within 24 hours prior to their departure, as well as have a negative PCR test result, conducted 96 hours prior to their departure.In order to strengthen the measures, the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine was initiated on 1st February 2021 with the government of Maldives set to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all citizens and residents of the country in the upcoming months. 

Visit Maldives together with the Ministry of Tourism launches "I'm Vaccinated" campaign in order to share a positive message regarding the vaccination of staff working in the tourism sector as well as promoting the initiatives undertaken to ensure the Maldives remains one of the safest destinations in the world for travelers. The ultimate target is to make Maldives the destination with the first fully vaccinated tourism sector in the world.