The Maldives ranked as the 3rd most-searched international destination on Travelzoo’s U.S. website in 2020, with a surge in interest coming after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several 5-star resorts in the Maldives including the Park Hyatt Maldives, You & Me Maldives, and KIHAA Maldives partnered up with Travelzoo to promote irresistible, luxury experiences for Travelzoo members. The tremendous interest from these offers helped The Maldives climb from 40th in international search before the pandemic all the way up to 3rd – with a search increase of 275% year over year on the U.S. Travelzoo website. Thanks to these custom luxury experiences, Travelzoo members booked more than 73,000 future room nights in the Maldives for 2021 and beyond.

Travelzoo has over 30 million members worldwide, including over 14 million members in the U.S. alone. Since its inception in 1998, Travelzoo has inspired its members to book new experiences and visit new destinations. And while many things were different in 2020, the quest to book that once-in-a-lifetime vacation was not different for Travelzoo members.

According to Gabe Saglie, Senior Communications Manager for Travelzoo, “One fascinating fallout from the COVID pandemic is the way it’s put more of the world within reach for American travelers. Destinations that were once off the radar are now within reach, thanks to a heightened desire to make up for lost travel in 2020 and make future travel more memorable and more special. We’ve seen that – when armed with compelling offers, flexible terms and expert insight – Travelzoo members will enthusiastically invest in travel to exotic, luxurious and unique destinations, like The Maldives.”

With the onset of the pandemic, Visit Maldives and the many tourist establishments in the Maldives had to change their means of communication and relevant marketing strategies to align with the most recent and convenient trends on digital and social media platforms. Several of these platforms were utilized to increase the destination’s visibility among potential travelers. As a result of these extensive efforts, Maldives welcomed over 100,000 tourists since the reopening of borders on 15th July 2020, and recorded over 500,000 tourist arrivals for the entire year.

(Sources: Google Analytics, January 1 – December 31, 2019 compared to January 1 – December 31, 2020 among international destinations, Travelzoo U.S. member survey, December 17-20, 2020, n=1,001).