Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) is maintaining the destination momentum in Maldives largest market for this year, the Indian market, through a variety of activities and participation in the most prominent fairs and exhibitions.

MMPRC been conducting multiple exciting events, with more in the pipeline, to maintain the interest and momentum that the Maldives has reached with the Indian market, especially over the last few years with other prominent markets such as China still closed due to Covid-19. India was the largest market in 2020 with an arrival figure of 62,960 and a market share of 11.3% and performed similarly in 2021 with over 278,740 travelers and a market share of 22.6%. As of June, this year, the Maldives has welcomed 119,967 tourists to the country from India. During this period India ranked as the top source market in the country, contributing 14.8% of the total market share for 2022 so far.

To maintain Maldives destination momentum, MMPRC has conducted several activities targeting this market in addition to participating in prominent fairs such as OTM 2022, SATTE 2022 and TTF 2022. With the feedback and interest displayed by the Indian market before, during and after these events, MMPRC planned and conducted several joint campaigns with business leaders in the travel and tourism trade. This includes an outdoor advertising campaign promoting the destination in 05 different prime locations in the Delhi and Greater Noida area, with a total reach of approximately 7 million due to the great locations selected. The promotion was carried out from 1st May to 3rd June 2022, coinciding with SATTE 2022, and the locations where the Maldives was promoted were at a great intersection en route to SATTE and for general commuters travelling around the city, with a large number of people visiting locally and from different cities, to encourage them to visit the Maldives.

MMPRC is currently conducting joint-marketing campaigns with Thomas Cook, PickYourTrail, and Vistara Inflight magazine, the last of which is conducted from May till October 2022. Vistara is India’s only five-star rated airline, with an exclusive set of consumers and high recall value among travellers. The Vistara inflight magazine is designed for an elite and High Networth Individual (HNI) audience that wants to enhance their lifestyle, enrich their minds, and widen their experiences through the lens of travel. The audience is young and includes celebrities and corporates who are keen to engage with content and media on different platforms. Approximately 500,000 passengers travel through Vistara within a month, and this campaign will promote the Maldives as an ideal holiday destination and encourage the elite and HNI to consider our beautiful islands for their next holiday. The articles, advertisements, and advertorials placed in the magazine are expected to reach over 700,000 affluent readers, while the native story placed on the Vistara website is expected to have a minimum of 55,000 page views. Additionally, the Vistara newsletter reaching over 3 Million subscribers will also carry advertisements to visit the Maldives.

A team of media professionals representing various high-prominent Indian media outlets also visited the Maldives on a tourism familiarisation trip, from 13th to 19th June 2022. The team stayed in Kuramathi Maldives, The Residence Maldives and Noku Maldives. Officials from MMPRC visited Kuramathi Maldives to meet with the media team and discussed broadening efforts to further promote Maldivian tourism in the Indian market. MMPRC also promoted the Romantic Side of Life to the Indian audience through our partnership with Wedding Affair magazine. Wedding Affair is one of the largest selling International Indian wedding magazines, targeted at the luxury and niche audience and read by almost over 50,000 loyal readers. The Maldives’ cover and 8-page advertorial reached a readership of some 870,000, and the online portion of the campaign reached over 48,500, putting the total reach of the campaign at 1,033,385.