Visit Maldives commences campaigns with Wego, Sky News Arabia & Al Rais Travel to promote Maldives as a safe haven and most preferred destination of choice for Middle Eastern travelers.
From 10th March 2021 until 19th June 2021, Visit Maldives will collaborate with the acclaimed travel marketplace Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Maldives will be marketed and retargeted on all Wego platforms through both the website and their application.
Other tools include direct B2C emails to their vast customer base, articles, push notifications and several social media posts focusing on Maldives as a safe and preferred tourist destination. Furthermore, Wego will also utilize search engine marketing and optimization to increase direct traffic and engagement. This campaign is expected to generate approximately 1.5 million online advertising impressions and aims to convert these impressions into bookings and interest for Maldives.
In addition to this, Visit Maldives has also initiated a campaign with Sky News Arabia on the 3rd of April 2021. Sky News Arabia is a leading pan-Arab news organisation broadcasting 24/7 to over 570 million people across the Arabic-speaking world. With a free-to-air TV channel, audio platforms and social and digital channels, it is the home of breaking news, business, lifestyle, arts and culture.
Using Arabic language as medium, Sky News Arabia will create an informative segment on Maldives as a safe tourist destination on television and radio. In addition, digital banner advertisements featuring Maldives will also run on their website. Sky News Arabia’s social platforms are the fastest growing news platforms in the region with an estimated digital and social reach of over 48 million. 100,000+ impressions are to be generated through digital media for the Maldives campaign. Furthermore, Visit Maldives has just launched a marketing campaign with Al Rais today. Al Rais Travel & Shipping is one of the largest independent travel agencies operating in UAE since 1977. They are also one of the top Maldivian holiday sellers in the region.
The campaign includes online promotions, competition campaigns, holiday packages and other additional contributions. With a joint audience of more than 50,000 Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers, the planned promotional social media activities will increase Maldives’ awareness as a safe and desirable travel destination amongst Emiratis. The campaign ensures a strong conversation rate to generate interest and bookings for the destination.
In 2020, 26,288 tourists visited Maldives from the Middle East, which represents a considerable drop from 2019’s value of 60,003 owing to COVID-19 pandemic. However, core markets from the region were among the leading arrivals to the Maldives post the lockdown period and continue to grow stronger day-by-day. As the Maldives achieved the remarkable milestone of receiving 500,000 tourists amidst an ongoing pandemic last year, the goal of reaching pre-pandemic arrival numbers from the Middle East shows consistent potential. Maldives has witnessed record-breaking arrival figures in 2021 so far with an arrival figure of over 100,000 in March alone. As of 13th April 2021, Maldives has welcomed a total of 339,962 visitors.
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 a free vaccine to all citizens and residents of Maldives in the upcoming months. In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism also launched an initiative to vaccinate people in the tourism sector to develop an even safer scenario for the industry. As of 31st March, 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.
