Visit Maldives takes part in Moscow Dive Show, the largest exhibition for water-based activities in Russia. Maldives will be promoted as the most preferred dive destination during the four day exhibition held from 08 - 11th April 2021 in Moscow, Russia.

Moscow Dive Show is the largest exhibition of tourism, equipment and training for people interested in active lifestyle and water-based sports in Russia and Eastern Europe. The exhibition provides the opportunity for industry partners to announce new products and experiences, collaborate with new partners and strengthen old ties in the Russian and CIS markets.

Visit Maldives together with Maldives Holiday Collections and Ocean Sapphire will be representing the Maldives in a 40 square meter booth, showcasing the natural beauty of Maldives along with the underwater beauty. Information about the destination will be shared with the visitors to the stand along with dive information. In 2019, the fair recorded over 20,000 visitors in 4 days, including almost one thousand dive pros, i.e. dive business owners, dive club and dive shop managers and active dive instructors

Several initiatives have been conducted and are underway to market the destination in the Russian market. Earlier last month, Visit Maldives attended MITT 2021, the largest travel trade show in Russia. During the event, Maldives won ‘Best Island Presentation’ and ‘Bright Exhibiting Award’. Afterwards, Visit Maldives hosted roadshows in four major Russian cities to promote Maldives as the most preferred holiday destination for Russian travellers.

Furthermore, Visit Maldives recently concluded two media familiarization trips and has hosted Moya Planeta TV crew and a National Geographic photographer in the Maldives. More activities are in plan for the upcoming months targeting the Russian market. In addition to this, Visit Maldives will take part in the Luxury Travel Mart, Moscow scheduled to take place this April. Visit Maldives is conducting a global campaign targeting Russia in collaboration with Expedia Group. The collaboration with Expedia Group is one of the many high-impact global campaigns planned for the year. Visit Maldives is currently carrying out an educational and training programme targeted to the Russian travel trade with Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR).

As of 2nd April 2021, Russia is ranked in the 02nd position of the highest performing markets to Maldives with 21.3% of the market share of total arrivals, since the reopening of borders in July 2020. Maldives has welcomed over 98,729 arrivals from Russia and remains a key focus market in the recovery of tourism in Maldives. In total, The Maldives have welcomed over 302,491 tourist arrivals till 2nd April 2021.

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.

On 1st February 2021, Maldives initiated the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the government aims to provide free COVID-19 vaccine to all citizens and residents of Maldives in the upcoming months. In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism also launched an initiative to vaccinate frontliner workers in the tourism sector to develop an even safer scenario for the industry. As of March 27th, 224,979 people have received the vaccine including 14,898 frontliner workers in the tourism industry. The initiation of the vaccination drive is bound to offer hope to the local population, as well as ensure the safety of tourists. This conveys the message that Maldives is a low-risk destination for travelers and will hopefully generate a surge in tourist arrivals.