Luke Air operated by Blue Panorama Airlines, chartered by the Polish tour operator ITAKA and managed by Sun Ocean Maldives has resumed weekly charters to Maldives from Poland with their A330 aircraft. The charter flights are managed by local agent, Sun Ocean Maldives. The first charter flight from the Polish market this year, LOT Polish Airline arrived in the Maldives on February 19th, carrying over 294 passengers and continued until the 7th of May 2021. The current charter flights by Luke Air are being planned to continue from 17 June 2021 onwards, intending to continue the operation until April 2022. A total of 297 tourists arrived in Maldives from Poland via Luke Air today. The very first direct charter flight from Poland to Maldives arrived on 20th June 2019.
To further support the efforts of Sun Ocean and ITAKA, Visit Maldives launched a joint campaign with ITAKA to promote Maldives as a safe haven in Poland and to boost arrivals from the market. Through this campaign digital marketing activities and outdoor ambient campaigns to promote the renowned products and uniquely-Maldivian experiences offered in the destination are being highlighted. The safety provided by the natural socially-distanced geography of the Maldivian islands are being emphasised through this campaign as well.
The campaign coincided with the recommencement of the charter flights to the Maldives from Warsaw and such focused marketing campaigns are necessary to promote the destination and maintain this charter operation all year round.
With over 30 years of experience, ITAKA is one of the most popular tour operators in Poland. ITAKA offers holidays to over 100 locations worldwide and served an impressive 915,000 clients in 2018. With over a 30% market share, ITAKA holds a spot as a proficient and experienced tour operator in the Polish market. The campaign with ITAKA will strongly increase Maldives’ visibility in the Polish market.
The ongoing campaign with ITAKA combines digital and outdoor advertisements to increase and drive bookings to Maldives. Under the digital campaign, Maldives is currently being advertised on AdWords with beautiful scenery and accompanying informative text. The destination is also being promoted on various travel and lifestyle Polish websites through animated display ads and push messages. In addition to widely reached websites, the destination is also featured on ITAKA’s official instagram. The marketing materials are expected to reach an estimated 25 million unique visitors.
Under the outdoor advertising component, Maldives is going to be showcased on TVs in over 150 of ITAKA’s offices around Poland for one month. In addition, ads featuring the destination are currently live on LED TV in front of Hard Rock Cafe’ Złote Tarasy Al. Jerozolimskie and a large print banner will be showcased in a popular area in Warsaw called Koszyki with a monthly traffic of over 1.4 million visitors.
With an arrival figure of over 8000 tourists, the Polish market is an emerging potential top source market to the Maldives. With easing of travel restrictions and direct connectivity, the Polish market plays an integral role in achieving pre-pandemic arrival figures. To maintain destination and presence and further increase brand visibility, a roadshow is planned for the latter half of the year for Central and Eastern Europe countries including Poland. Maldives have welcomed over 479,597 travelers till 3rd of June 2021.
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.In order to strengthen the measures, the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine was initiated on 1st February 2021 with the government of Maldives set to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all citizens and residents of the country in the upcoming months.
The administration of the COVID-19 vaccine was initiated on 1st February 2021 with the government of Maldives set to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all citizens and residents of the country in the upcoming months. Visit Maldives together with the Ministry of Tourism launches “I’m Vaccinated” campaign in order to share a positive message regarding the vaccination of staff working in the tourism sector as well as promoting the initiatives undertaken to ensure the Maldives remains one of the safest destinations in the world for travelers. The ultimate target is to make Maldives the destination with the first fully vaccinated tourism sector in the world.
