Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) and the Embassy of the Republic of Maldives in the United Arab Emirates held a special press conference on 10th May 2022, on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Arabia. The event, held at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center - also known as the Dubai World Trade Center - saw the official launch of MMPRC’s mice-tourism focussed campaign ‘Redefining MICE’ for this region.

The press conference was hosted by the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of MMPRC, Thoyyib Mohamed, and Chief Marketing Officer of MMPRC, Fathimath Afra, together with Her Excellency Aminath Shabeena, the Ambassador of the Maldives to the United Arab Emirates. Speaking to reporters, CEO & MD Thoyyib revealed the importance of the Middle Eastern market to Maldives tourism in the wake of covid-19 recovery efforts. He further detailed the official launching of MMPRC’s “Redefining MICE” campaign for the region, aimed specifically at developing MICE tourism arrivals to the Maldives. He also spoke on the many exciting plans to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of tourism in the Maldives, and detailed activities that visitors to the Maldives can look forward to this ongoing year.

Arabian Travel Market is the leading global event for the inbound and outbound travel industry in the Middle East. For the last twenty-eight years, their annual event has connected products and destinations from around the world with buyers and travel trade visitors. It aims to support the travel industry and facilitate important business connections.

Last year, the Maldives welcomed 91,413 tourists to the country from the Middle Eastern market with Saudi Arabia ranked as the top 7th market to Maldives. From January to March this year the country has recorded 21,117 arrivals from the Middle East market. MMPRC has planned several activities targeting the Middle East market under the effort to maintain destination visibility. This includes joint-marketing campaigns, webinars, participation in major fairs and exhibitions, roadshows, and hosting familiarization trips.

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 recognized 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.