Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has launched a marketing campaign with the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), targeting the United States (US) market. Starting March 2022, the year-long campaign will place the Maldives in the ASTA Worldwide Destination guide, an invaluable country-by-country reference guide published annually.

The content is designed to aid and train US travel trade professionals on how to market the Maldives to interest travelers, giving them first hand sales tips on the region, best times to visit, and other useful advice. The content will showcase the four tourism products (resorts, guesthouses, liveaboards, hotels) and will highlight the uniquely Maldivian experiences.

Additionally, the content will also promote the Maldives as a safe haven, by highlighting the stringent safety measures in place and the blessings provided by the naturally social-distanced unique geography of Maldives. The print version of ASTA Worldwide Destination guide will reach an estimated over 55,000 travel sales agents across the US while the digital version will be sent to over 20,000 ASTA members on launch.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, the US continues to contribute a significant number of tourists to the Maldives ranking as the 5th top source market with an arrival figure of 54,745 travelers last year. By January this year, the Maldives had welcomed 5,028 travelers from the United States. In total, 229,027 travelers have arrived in the Maldives so far this year.

Being a key market, MMPRC has many activities in the pipeline for this year targeted at travelers from the US, including destination trainings, webinars, familiarization trips and roadshows. MMPRC also plans to hold virtual events for the market through this year and participate in physical fairs such as ATTA Elevate North American Conference and USTOA Annual Conference.

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.