Media professionals from leading media outlets from India arrived in the Maldives by invitation from Maldives Marketing and Public Relation Corporations (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) for a familiarization trip. The team will be staying in the Maldives from 13th to 19th June 2022. 

This team consists of professionals from the media outlets which includes Times of India, Financial Express, BW Business World, NDTV Food, and Travel Dine. The team is hosted at Kuramathi Maldives, The Residence Maldives and Noku Maldives where they are experiencing the world-renowned Maldivian hospitality, unique experiences, and different cuisines at their host properties. The theme of the familiarization trip is gastronomy, and they are experiencing the unique cuisines of the Maldives during their trip. The team will publish articles about the destination and the host resorts in their respective magazines and publications, which has extensive reach among travelers from India. 

Officials from MMPRC visited Kuramathi and met with the two, holding discussions about ways to broaden efforts to further promote the destination in the Indian market. MMPRC representatives also shared a destination presentation with the members of the visiting team, giving the latest updates on travel guidelines to the Maldives, and interesting unique experiences available here. 

The purpose of this familiarization trip is to promote the destination amongst potential travelers from India. The trip is expected to generate huge coverage highlighting the unique geographical advantage of our scattered islands and the one-island-one-resort concept which makes Maldives one of the safest holiday destinations in the world. It will further help to promote the unique experiences and individual tourism products of the Maldives (resorts, guesthouses, liveaboards, and hotels). This trip is organized as part of MMPRC’s marketing strategy for the India market, aiming to provide the latest information about the travel guidelines to potential travelers from the region. 

The fam trip is forecasted to increase arrival figures and bookings from India to the Maldives. So far this year MMPRC has held a destination e-learning campaign with 2HUB, influencer familiarization trips and celebrity familiarization trips. There are two digital campaigns ongoing, with Thomas Cook and PickyourTrail. In addition to this MMPRC participated in OTM and SATTE this year focusing on the India Market. There are several other marketing and advertising activities in the pipeline for this market for this year.

As of 8th June 2022, India is the leading source market for the Maldives with over 104,800 tourists visiting the destination from this market. India contributed 14.3% to the market share from the total 732,884 arrivals recorded to the Maldives during this period. India was also the largest market in 2021 with over 278,740 travelers and a market share of 22.6%. Similarly, India was the largest market in 2020 with an arrival figure of 62,960 and a market share of 11.3%.

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 recognised 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.