Male’, Maldives, 27th April 2022 – A team of media professionals from leading magazines and publications from the Netherlands have departed the Maldives upon conclusion of a week-long familiarization trip. The team was invited by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relation Corporation’s (MMPRC / Visit Maldives) to visit the Maldives from 6 to 13 April 2022.
The team consisted of popular writers, journalists and professionals from leading magazines and publications in the Netherlands, with a combined total reach exceeding millions of readers. They were hosted at Joali Being, Grand Park Kodhipparu Maldives and Crossroads Maldives for the duration of their trip. Under the theme of ‘Wellness’, the team experienced the world-renowned Maldivian hospitality and had the golden opportunity to try activities and dishes unique to the properties based on the established theme. The team will publish articles about the destination and host resorts in their respective magazines and publications, which has extensive reach amongst affluent travellers as well.
This familiarization trip provided the Maldives with the perfect opportunity to promote the destination as a safe haven for travellers from the Netherlands, and to promote the memorable experiences and individual tourism products of the Maldives (resorts, guesthouses, liveaboards, and hotels). This trip was organized as a part of MMPRC’s marketing strategy for the Netherlands market, and aimed to provide the latest information about the travel guidelines to potential travellers from the region. The strategy hopes to market our scattered islands, with its mesmorising and unique geography, as one of the safest destinations in the world.
This trip also falls under a new short-term strategy devised to address the evolving geopolitical climate in the world following the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war. With Russia and CIS topping the arrivals figures in recent years, the strategy is aimed at mitigating the potentially adverse impact on arrival numbers from this region by re-strategizing marketing activities in selected markets.
This was MMPRC’s first activity promoting the Maldives as a top of the mind destination for tourists from the Netherlands market. It is forecasted to increase arrival figures and bookings from the Netherlands to the island nation. MMPRC reports there are several other marketing and advertising activities in the pipeline for the Netherlands market this year, including print advertising campaigns, digital media marketing, and social media campaigns.
The Maldives recorded 5,100 arrivals from the Netherlands in 2021. Prior to the pandemic, the Netherlands was a growing market, close in geographical proximity to most of the Maldives’ traditional top source markets in Western Europe. Market recovery since the pandemic has been on a steady incline, and subsequently, in the first three months of 2022, the Maldives has already welcomed 2,295 travellers visiting from the Netherlands. 2022 also celebrates an exceptional year to visit the Maldives – the Golden Jubilee celebration of tourism in the Maldives kicked off earlier last year with plans to conduct new and exciting activities throughout the year.
