Maldives Tuesday, March 1, 2022 – Today IMTM Pvt. Ltd. has officially announced the fifth edition of International Maldives Travel Market (IMTM) 2022, B2B travel and trade fair bringing forth a cost-effective platform for leading international tour operators and travel agencies to explore opportunities in the Maldives; as well as connect with all the accommodation providers of the Maldives Tourism Industry, including resorts, liveaboards, and guesthouses (local island tourism). IMTM promotes both inbound and outbound tourism and caters specifically to the travel and the tourism industry. The travel and trade fair is conducted in the hope of promoting Maldives as a world-class MICE destination, which will be the cornerstone in the future of the events industry.
IMTM 2022 is scheduled to be held in September 2022. The Sustainable Tourism Forum (STF) will be returning back for the first time since 2019 on 6 September. Following it, the IMTM travel and trade fair will take place as a physical event on 7 and 8 September 2022 in Greater Male’ Region. This year IMTM aims to bring over 100 International Buyers from 20 different countries and over 800 Trade Visitor’s representatives of all 5 main sectors (resorts, hotels, guesthouses, liveaboards and homestay) from the tourism industry. The support business of the industry (Suppliers) will participate as Exhibitors. The target is set to perform better than in the pre-pandemic year.
As the countries across the world loosen covid restrictions and shift their approach to accepting Covid-19 as a manageable part of everyday life, the travel industry is growing hope that this will be the year that travel comes roaring back. The theme for this year’s edition of IMTM is “Adapt and Rethink Tourism for Resilience”. The year 2022 is expected to witness the rebuilding of tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a tourism-driven country, the Maldives was undoubtedly the hardest hit South Asian nation by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the sector has also strongly grown in visibility and relevance with the strategic policies and proactive Covid counter measures adopted by the government alongside MMPRC and industry stakeholders.
IMTM will be incorporating the Golden Year of Tourism celebrations in this year’s fair to mark the 50th anniversary of the tourism industry of the Maldives. Homestay tourism was introduced in the Maldives on 1st January 2022 with the commencement of the Golden Jubilee celebration. IMTM is pleased to invite the first 50(fifty) registrations from Homestay Properties and Guesthouses combined to participate in IMTM 2022 with fees waived off.
IMTM has continuously strived to promote the guesthouse industry of the Maldives. For the past 12 years, research indicates that the guesthouse industry is not optimally represented through travel agencies and tour operators. Most guesthouse establishments rely heavily on OTA such as booking.com and agoda.com. Even though OTA’s are an integral part of guesthouse tourism, one of our objectives is to bridge the gap between travel agents and tour operators with the guesthouse industry of the Maldives in order to provide them with diverse opportunities to expand their businesses. This can be the case for the Homestay properties as well and IMTM travel and trade fair is the most instrumental B2B platform for guesthouse and homestay businesses.
When it comes to the fair concept, the main categories of the IMTM 2022 fair includes International Buyers, Accommodation Providers (Local Trade Visitors), Exhibitors (Local and International) and Partners. Local Trade Visitors will be charged a participation fee of USD 250 per person per company, Local Trade Exhibitors will be charged a participation fee of USD 500 for two-person. The International Exhibitors and the Partners can receive the marketing kit via an email request to [email protected]. The event also invites International Hosted Buyers to participate and make meaningful connections with accommodation providers and partners alike. As such, IMTM has also opened up registration for the hosted buyer program. IMTM ‘hosts’ these buyers by sponsoring their accommodation, meals, transfers and creating a bespoke experience so they can meet accommodation providers through pre-arranged appointments.
IMTM encourages all the tourism industry professionals and properties to participate in this year’s travel and trade fair in an effort to revive the event industry. When looking at the reasons to participate, the fair allows participants to meet and make connections with over 800 delegates and professionals, be part of the Golden Jubilee Year, meet new companies, boost businesses and position the company as a leading brand, close deals with new customers during the show, meet existing clients face to face to actively interact and maintain a relationship, increase international and local database, meet Exhibiting Partner/Suppliers of the tourism industry in the Maldives. Furthermore, IMTM calls for critical support from the government, different ministries, authorities and the state-owned companies that play a pivotal role to sustain the efforts from the private sector by contributing to IMTM 2022 to make it a successful B2B MICE event in the Maldives.
