Visit Maldives hosted a press conference of ITB Berlin on 10th March 2021. ITB Berlin is one of the leading travel trade shows in the world and this presented the opportunity to strategically promote the Maldives to an international audience as one of the most ideal destinations to travel to during these trying times.

The panel consisted of Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, the Minister of Tourism and Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed, the Managing Director of Visit Maldives. During the press conference, an insight was given into the impact of covid-19 and the efforts to promote Maldives as a safe destination along with notable accolades of the destination. The vaccination program in the country was also shared with aims to become one of the first countries to have a 100% vaccinated tourism sector and population.

The opening remarks by Dr. Abdulla Mausoom highlighted the ways Maldives tourism managed the covid-19 along with plans to initiate 3V tourism this year. The 3V stands for Visit, Vaccinate and Vacation, where tourists will have the option to get vaccinated against covid-19 in the Maldives and have their holiday. It was followed by remarks from Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed who spoke about marketing the Maldives during the pandemic along with the achievements attained as a collective effort of every stakeholder involved in the industry. “In 2020, the Maldives received the World’s Leading Destination award at the Grand Final of the World Travel Awards 2020 for the first time, marking a moment in history.

It was a true testament to the immense efforts that every single stakeholder in the tourism industry invested in maintaining destination presence, adapting to the pandemic - most importantly, envisioning the future of the Maldives and the tourism industry as a whole”, he stated. The press conference ended with a Q&A session afterwards where the media indicated great interest towards learning more about the destination and enquired about the current situation of Maldives as well as plans for the future.

ITB Berlin will continue till 12th March 2021 and is held completely virtually. The four-day event will promote Maldives as a safe haven for travelers with nearly 30 direct flights to the destination spread across different continents.

Visit Maldives has planned several marketing activities, including joint promotions and participation in key travel trade fairs. In addition, focused digital, social media and virtual activities are planned, aiming to maintain the destination presence. Despite the global pandemic, Maldives has welcomed a total of 555,494 travelers in 2020 and over 200,000 travelers till date.