ITB Berlin NOW: Visit Maldives Hosts Virtual Conference
Saturday 13th of March 2021
On March 10, 2021, Visit Maldives has hosted a virtual conference at one of the world’s leading travel and trade shows, ITB Berlin 2021. Held virtually this year, this opportunity at the fair was utilized to strategically promote the Maldives as one of the most ideal post-pandemic travel destinations to a massive international audience.
Speaking at the conference, Tourism Minister, Abdulla Mausoom and Managing Director of MMPRC, Thoyyib Mohamed, both highlighted the impact of the unprecedented event on the tourism industry of the Maldives and how it has worked to tirelessly curb the impacts and revive the industry. Moreover, the key successes of the year including the major accolades the nation won were also highlighted.
In his opening remarks, Minister Mausoom spoke about the initiatives rolled out since the pandemic struck and revealed plans of ‘3V Tourism’ this year. Explaining it further, Minister discussed on how the Visit, Vaccinate and Vacation program makes Maldives a desirable and safe getaway for tourists who plan to stay for longer durations. Maldives also aims to become one of the first destinations in the world to vaccinate 100% of its tourism workforce.
Following the Minister's remarks, Mr. Thoyyib shared the continuous marketing efforts and various campaigns by Visit Maldives to keep hopes of travelling to the Maldives alive in the hearts of its aspiring guests. These efforts proved to be successful when the Maldives was awarded the World’s Leading Destination Award by World travel Awards 2020 as a testament of the immense efforts that every single stakeholder in the tourism industry invested in maintaining destination presence, adapting to the pandemic - most importantly, envisioning the future of the Maldives and the tourism industry as a whole.
The press conference ended with a Q&A session afterwards where the media indicated great interest towards learning more about the destination and enquired about the current situation of Maldives as well as plans for the future.