Visit Maldives has successfully launched two major marketing activities in China, including the launching of Maldives Online Roadshow and information portal for travel trade on WeChat.

Maldives Online Roadshow will be held from 30 th November till 2 nd December 2020. The roadshow is divided into three sections. The first section is the Webinar which is held on 30 th November 2020. During the Webinar, an in-depth presentation of Maldives tourism will be given to the travel trade. The objective of the webinar to reassure the participating travel agents that Maldives is a relatively safe destination and a safe haven for their clients to visit, following the re-opening of outbound travel from China.

The following sections of the roadshow includes the online exhibition which will be live from 30 th November till end of February 2021 and one on one meetings taken from 1st December to 2nd December 2020. Together with 11 tourism industry partners, Visit Maldives will be sharing up to date travel and product information with the top travel agents from China via the online exhibition.

Visit Maldives will be partaking in scheduled one-to-one meetings where emphasis will be given to marketing the safety standards put in place to ensure that Maldives is one of the safest destinations to travel to and that the geographical formation of the island nation further aids in this. In addition, these meetings will also help to identify strategies to further improve the market performance and strengthen the presence of the destination within the market.

During the roadshow, Visit Maldives is also launching the China Travel Trade information portal. This portal is a mini program available on WeChat. WeChat is one of the most popular social media apps in China, which has over 1.2 billion monthly active users and is known to be one of the most important information hubs for Chinese travelers. WeChat Mini Programs are built-in apps within the WeChat ecosystem, connecting Chinese people’s social life from communication to service. China Travel Trade information portal can be accessed by China travel trade via WeChat without installing any additional Application.

The main objective of the portal is to continue the efforts of rebuilding confidence in the destination and to maintain direct communication with the Chinese travel trade by sharing up to date information. China remains one of the key source markets to Maldives for the past ten years. A total of 284,029 tourist arrivals were recorded from China to Maldives in 2019.

Prior to closing of borders for China Market due to pandemic, a total of a total of 31,744 tourist arrivals were recorded in January from this market which was a 23% growth compared to the same period last year.

Visit Maldives has been continuously running several campaigns throughout the year to reassure Chinese visitors and keep them dreaming of the destination. The hope is to continue the growth of tourist arrivals from China when outbound travel resumes from the market once again. These campaigns include several digital campaigns on Weibo and WeChat, Outdoor Campaigns in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, several Media interviews, and joint campaigns with tour operators.