SPECIAL DOSSIER: MALDIVES 43 2016: Visit Maldives Year Haris Mohamed - Acting Managing Director – Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation outlines activities… 2016 is “Visit Maldives Year”, with a number of promotions being organised around this at ITBBerlin. We asked Haris Mohamed - Acting Managing Director – Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation – to tell us a little more. Visit Maldives Year 2016 was officially declared by H.E. President Abdulla Yaameen Abdul Gayyoom as a destination marketing campaign coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of Independence of the Maldives. One of the important targets of “Visit Maldives Year” is to reach 1.5 million tourist arrivals to the country. Different promotional campaigns and activities are taking place both locally and internationally. Among them, one of the major events is of course partnering with ITB as the host country for 2016. ITB is also marking its ONE OF THE IMPORTANT TARGETS OF “VISIT MALDIVES YEAR” IS TO REACH 1.5 MILLION TOURIST ARRIVALS TO THE COUNTRY Golden Jubilee and this creates a very important message to the world’s tourism industry. It gives the opportunity to promote the Visit Maldives Year to a larger audience as ITB is the biggest travel and tourism event in the world and all the important names of the tourism industry from around the world will be visiting. Other activities that can be enjoyed by visitors include 100 islands in 30 days, mega weddings, an international surf competition, 100K tourist celebration, a free diving competition and a photo competition. Also, there will be many other opportunities for visitors to win fabulous free holiday prizes. What kind of growth have you seen in 2015, and what are your projections for the next year(s)? The Maldives started tourism with only 2 resorts in 1972. It began with just 280 beds. Our destination has grown so huge that by today we could proudly say we have over 100 resorts. This is such a great achievement for our tourism growth. Maldives does not only cater for the luxury markets or for high end users. Today, apart from existing resorts, guesthouses on local islands are also a new product that is very popular among the tourists which ultimately contributes to increase our bed capacity in total. Up to the end of 2015, we had welcomed about 1.2 million tourists from all over the world to our beautiful destination. We are expecting the tourist arrivals to increase to 1.5 million in 2016, with the help of our VMY promotional activities. When people think of the Maldives, they automatically think of diving and farniente on the beach… What however will be key “USPs” you will be highlighting at ITBBerlin? I believe the major USP for us would be privacy of the destination; which is the one island one resort concept in Maldives. Each resort in Maldives is developed and run on a separate island on its own, which guarantees the complete privacy for the guests. This will be the most unique selling point of the destination. Maldives is an archipelago of 1,200 small coral islands that offer spectacular beaches and snorkeling and diving. Maldives is largely about beach, sun, water sports, restaurants, and relaxation. Each resort in the Maldives is on its own island, which showcases the world’s best over-water villas, innovative resort features, and first-class spa facilities. Resorts have been creative in building unique facilities such as underwater restaurants and spa treatment rooms, underground wine cellars, over water villas with pools, treetop dining venues, observatories and more. Some of the nicest and unique resorts in the world are in the Maldives. How is transport and hotel infrastructure evolving? With resorts being developed further away from the main island of Malé, new international airports have been developed in the north and the south of the country. Also, new domestic airports are being developed for further smooth transfer of tourists to far-away resorts. The Maldives has the world’s largest seaplane fleet serving the tourism industry. Resorts / hotels / guesthouses have been creative in building unique facilities catering to all the segments. Haris Mohamed Managing Director – Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation Hall 5.2A / Stand 109, 109a ITB BERLIN NEWS • Wednesday 9 th March 2016
