Visit Maldives commences a campaign with Wego, Sky News Arabia & Al Rais to promote Maldives as a safe haven and the most preferred destination of choice for travelers throughout the Middle Eastern market.

From 10th March 2021 until 19th June 2021, Visit Maldives will collaborate marketing campaigns with the acclaimed travel marketplace Wego. Wego is one of the largest travel marketplaces throughout the Middle East, North Africa, India and Southeast Asia. The platform provides powerful yet intuitive technology that automates the process of searching and comparing results from a database of hundreds of airline, hotel and online travel agency websites. 

The campaign with Wego will utilize several digital marketing tools. Maldives will be marketed and retargeted on all WeGo platforms through both the website and their application. Additionally, the company will send direct emails to its vast customer base, highlighting the destination. Articles, push notifications and several social media posts will be created focusing on Maldives as a safe and preferred tourist destination. Furthermore, the company will also utilize search engine marketing and optimization to increase direct traffic and engagement with content related to Maldives. 

The campaign with WeGo is expected to generate approximately 1.5 million online advertising impressions and ensures to convert these impressions into bookings and interest for Maldives. 

In addition to this, Visit Maldives has also initiated a marketing campaign with Sky News Arabia on the 3rd of April 2021. Sky News Arabia is the top international TV channel for Arabs reaching more than 35 million viewers across various platforms through TV, radio, and digital media alongside collaborations with airline and hotel partners. 

Under this campaign, Sky News Arabia will create an informative segment on Maldives as a safe tourist destination on television and advertise the destination on radio spots during prime time. In addition to this, digital banner advertisements featuring Maldives will also be showcased on the Sky News Arabia website. 

Sky News Arabia’s global TV reach exceeds more than 156 million viewers through airlines and hotel partners. An estimated 100,000+ impressions are to be generated through the digital media component of this campaign. Ultimately, the campaign adheres directly with the Middle Eastern strategies to promote Maldives by using Arabic language in marketing communications. 

Furthermore, Visit Maldives has planned to initiate a marketing campaign with Al Rais within the same month. Al Rais Travel & Shipping is one of the largest independent travel agencies operating in UAE since 1977. They are also one of the top Maldivian holiday sellers in the region. 

The campaign with Al Rais would include online promotions, competition campaigns, holiday packages and other additional contributions. With a joint audience of more than 50,000 Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers, the planned promotional activities on social media will increase awareness among Emiratis about Maldives as a safe and desired travel destination. The campaign ensures a strong conversation rate to generate interest and bookings for the destination. 

In 2020, 26,288 tourists visited Maldives from the Middle Eastern market which represents a considerable drop from 2019’s value of 60,003 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. 

However, core markets from the region were among the leading arrivals to the Maldives post the lockdown period and continue to grow stronger day-by-day. As the Maldives achieves the remarkable milestone of receiving 500,000 tourists amidst an ongoing pandemic last year, the goal of reaching pre-pandemic arrival numbers from the Middle East shows consistent potential. Maldives has witnessed record-breaking arrival figures in 2021 so far with an arrival figure of over 100,000 in March alone. As of 13th April 2021, Maldives has welcomed a total of 339,962 visitors. 

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 people in the tourism sector to develop an even safer scenario for the industry. As of 31st March, 237,716 people have received the vaccine including 17,516 front-liner 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.