Male’, Maldives, 11th February 2024 – The Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC/Visit Maldives) is currently showcasing the vibrant underwater world of the Maldives at the Moscow Dive Show 2024, alongside four industry partners. Held from February 8th to 11th, 2024, at the “Gostinyi Dvor” Exhibition Centre in Moscow, Russia, this event serves as a crucial opportunity to engage with both B2B and B2C clients within the dive and underwater segments of Russia.
The Moscow Dive Show stands as the premier exhibition in Russia and CIS, focusing on equipment, tourism, and training for individuals passionate about an active lifestyle and water-based sports. Core activities at the exhibition include diving, spearfishing, freediving, and underwater photography, attracting a diverse audience of industry professionals and enthusiasts. It acts as a vital platform for industry partners to unveil their latest plans, establish collaborations with new partners, and strengthen existing ties within the Russian and CIS markets.
Visitors to the Moscow Dive Show encompass underwater and watersports enthusiasts, qualified activity instructors, potential business partners engaging in wholesale equipment purchases and direct hotel and safari yacht bookings, as well as industry professionals and consumers. The event provides opportune access to qualified travel buyers, influencers, and market professionals through both B2B and B2C avenues.
MMPRC aims to showcase the diversity of the Maldives’ underwater world at the Moscow Dive Show this year. Renowned worldwide as a leading dive destination, the Maldives boasts an abundance of marine life and diverse seascapes. With over 2,000 marine species and special diving spots in each atoll, many undiscovered areas remain ready to explore. Travellers to the Maldives can expect a wide array of experiences tailored for diving and watersports enthusiasts, including the rare opportunity to witness awe-inspiring whale sharks throughout the year and encounters with marine animals such as manta rays, turtles, and nudibranchs.
Visit Maldives has developed a comprehensive strategy tailored to the Russian market to ensure a robust destination presence. This includes reinforcing the Maldives’ brand through amplifying social media presence via influencers, ambient outdoor advertisements, coverage in publications facilitated by familiarisation trips, and ad campaigns across social and conventional media. The campaigns strategically employ local languages to create affinity and increase market penetration, with a special emphasis on leveraging social media and communication platforms popular within Russia, such as VK, Telegram, and Facebook, to maintain a consistent and engaging online presence.
Russia has proven to be a significant source market for the Maldives, with Visit Maldives welcoming 201,954 visitors from Russia in 2022, securing its position as the top source market. This trend continued in 2023, with 208,041 arrivals making Russia the second top source market of the year. Visit Maldives conducted and participated in various activities last year for this market, including participation in the Moscow Dive Show, conducting social media marketing initiatives, engagements with luxury travel partners, joint marketing promotions with esteemed partners like Kompass Tour, as well as collaborations with Kazakh bloggers.
Activities in the pipeline for the first quarter of this year include joint marketing promotions, familiarisation trips, and other strategic initiatives aimed at further solidifying the Maldives’ presence in the Russian market as a top-of-mind destination.
