Maldives to Strengthen Destination Marketing

Tuesday 28th of April 2020

Maldives to Strengthen Destination Marketing

Known as the island paradise on Earth, Maldives’ tourism suffers a great loss due to the global pandemic. The destination, however, is making all efforts to prepare for the post-pandemic lift and bring back their tourism statistics after the situation improves. As such, on 27th April, a webinar organised by PATA and the Maldives Marketing & PR Corporation (MMPRC).

The speakers at the COVID-19 Crisis and Maldives Tourism webinar were Thoyyib Mohamed, managing director, MMPRC; Mario Hardy, CEO of PATA; and Sarah Mathews, group head of destination marketing APAC, TripAdvisor. All of the speakers agreed that domestic travel would be the first to take off after the pandemic. However, Maldives does not have a strong domestic travel market.

“People are planning their next trip, doing research and seeking advice,” Mathews said, adding that travellers will book their next trip based on quality (value for money) and not cheap offers. After staying at home for a long time, the desire and need to travel would be high. And without “a domestic tourism product”, Cook said the Maldives would have to look at attracting travellers from the region and on short-haul flights.

Thoyyib Mohamed revealed that while the destination’s Visit Maldives campaign was severely disrupted at the onset of the crisis, the team had chosen to “re-adopt and re-strategize our campaigns in our source markets”. “We have shifted to digital and online campaigns, focusing on empathy. Our content is light-hearted and our ‘visit later’ message is for people to see and dream about the Maldives,” he explained.