Visit Maldives initiates a marketing campaign with Amazon India, the number one e-commerce platform in India. Lasting from 14th April 2021 to 13th May 2021, the natural beauty and the naturally distanced islands of Maldives will be advertised on the Amazon app reaching a customer base of 35 million daily and 310 million monthly unique visitors. The campaign is part of Visit Maldives’ greater strategy to increase outbound arrivals to achieve pre-pandemic arrival figures and sustain India as the fastest growing source market for Maldives.

As part of the campaign, Amazon India will feature Maldives on its three application most engaged pages: Mobile Below the Fold (MBTF), Amazon Pay page and the Thank You page. The campaign aims to target a variety of groups such as affluent shoppers, travel enthusiasts and professional tech enthusiasts. The advertisements are estimated to achieve over 9 million impressions. Furthermore, Dhigu Faru Island Resort will collaborate with Visit Maldives during the campaign.

Amazon India reaches 77% of the digital population in India with 65% of travel and hospitality viewers present on the platform. As a result of the immense reach, popularity and engagement with the platform, the campaign with Amazon India will increase awareness of Maldives as a safe and preferred tourist destination among o spenders across all categories.

There are several activities ongoing and planned for the Indian market to promote Maldives as a safe haven. Visit Maldives has concluded a campaign Wedding Sutra targeting honeymoon segments, further, joint marketing campaigns with Thomas Cook and MakeMyTrip are currently ongoing . In addition, Visit Maldives has conducted media, travel agents and celebrity familiarization trips from Indian market in order to sustain the destination presence and increase the arrival numbers.

Statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism reveals that India is currently the top source market for tourism in the Maldives. The latest statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism indicates that as of 31st March 2021 Maldives welcomed a total of 298,570 travelers with an arrival figure of 69,730 travelers from India. Visit Maldives plans to continue this momentum of growth by conducting several marketing activities in India.

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. As of March 31st, 237,716 people have received the vaccine including 17,516 frontline 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.