Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) and a major tour operator from Japan, JTB Media Retailing, has held a webinar to revitalize and maintain the Maldives’ brand presence in the Japanese Market. The webinar was held on Zoom on 22nd February 2022.

JTB Media Retailing is one of the biggest tour operators in Japan and also one of the key players for Japanese travelers to the Maldives. JTB Media Retailing is a subsidiary company of JTB Group, specializing in overseas and domestic leisure packages under the brand name "JTB Tabi Monogatari (JTB Travel Story)". This Webinar focused on Japanese consumers to promote the Maldives as a safe haven in partnership with industry partner Jumeirah Maldives Olhahali Island, who hosted the live event on their property.

The webinar was attended by 120 viewers, and consisted of an introduction by JTB Tabimonogatari, destination presentation, live session from the sponsor property and a Q&A. The purpose of this webinar was to promote the Maldives as a safe destination to travel post pandemic, increase publicity and awareness of the Maldives as a travel destination by utilizing JTB's communication channels, and to increase the number of followers on Japanese SNS channels of Visit Maldives. The webinar is estimated to reach over 186,165 people, helping gain extra followers for Visit Maldives Japan’s social media.

In keeping with MMPRC’s marketing strategy for the Japanese market, this webinar aims to market the destination as a safe haven for travelers, promote the one-island-one resort concept, and advertise the unique geography of the Maldives’ scattered islands allowing natural social distancing for visitors. Through this webinar, tourism products available in the Maldives, including resorts, hotels, guesthouses, liveaboards and homestay options were further advertised. The webinar also helped to familiarize tourists with the unique experiences available in the Maldives.

In 2019, a total of 44,251 travelers arrived in the Maldives from Japan, ranking the island nation as the 9th top source market for Maldivian tourism. The Japanese border is currently open, however, many restrictions are in place for domestic and international travel. MMPRC aims to maintain destination presence and to place Maldives as the top choice destination to travel to when travel restrictions in Japan are eased further. Activities in the pipeline for the Japanese market include media and celebrity familiarization trips, and social media campaigns. 

As the company responsible for marketing the Maldives as a destination abroad, MMPRC carried out 260 different marketing activities in 22 global markets last year, including fairs, roadshows, familiarization trips, marketing campaigns, webinars, and interviews. The greatest testament to the success of these activities came late last year, as the Maldives secured the title of ‘World’s Leading Destination’ (among several other accolades) at the 2021 World Travel Awards, globally recognised as the hallmark of industry excellence. This is the second consecutive year that the Maldives had successfully earned this prestigious title, a shining testimony of the trust placed in the ‘magic of Maldivian hospitality’ by travelers from all over the globe. 

This year also celebrates an exceptional year to visit the Maldives – the Golden Jubilee celebration of tourism in the Maldives kicked off earlier last year with plans to conduct new and exciting activities throughout the year. MMPRC has planned over 60 in-person events for the year 2022, including 11 fairs, roadshows and events scheduled for just the first quarter.