Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has successfully concluded a series of webinar sessions targeting the travel trade in China.
The webinar series was conducted through 10 sessions held from May 20 and October 16, for the purpose of educating the Chinese travel trade partners and positioning the Maldives as the most preferred tourist destination among Chinese travelers.
Over 2,370 travel agents from across China participated in the webinar series.
In the first five sessions, an in-depth presentation of Maldives tourism with information about the country’s tourism products and airlines operating to the destination was given to the participants in Chinese language. These sessions also focused on sharing information about travelling to the Maldives during the pandemic.
The remaining sessions were for partners from the Maldives tourism industry to share information about their respective properties and products with the travel agents.
Each session was conducted with specific discussion topics, based on Chinese tourists’ interests. At the end of each session, an interactive Q&A session was conducted to answer any queries the travel agents had about the destination.
“The feedback received by the participants was positive, with many Chinese tourists looking forward to travelling to Maldives,” MMPRC said, in a statement.
“These webinar sessions were an integral part of the marketing strategy by MMPRC to train travel trade in key tourist markets across the globe. It is important to continue to promote Maldives as a safe destination in the Chinese Market.”
MMPRC has conducted several marketing activities for the Chinese market, including digital campaigns on Weibo and WeChat, and outdoor campaigns in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, as well as participation in Luxury Resort 2020 roadshow by Runtour and several media interviews.
MMPRC is planning to conduct online roadshows in China and to launch a China travel trade portal on WeChat, as well as to conduct more social media promotions and joint campaigns with the travel trade.
China remains the biggest source market for the Maldives. It is projected that arrivals from China will increase exponentially once China reopens its borders for international outbound travel.
Last year, 284,372 tourists arrived in the Maldives from China, making it the number one source market. In January alone, arrivals from China grew at an year-over-year rate of 23 per cent to reach 31,744.
Meanwhile, Visit Maldives is also carrying out several marketing activities worldwide to ensure that Maldives remains one of the most preferred and safest tourist destinations.
Global campaigns have been lauched with SkyScanner and CNN, while market specific campaigns are being carried out with DNATA in Middle East, Travel Weekly in UK, FVW in Germany, OTA in France, WeddingSutra in India, and Travelata, sletat and Squiz in Russia.
Outdoor advertising campaigns are also underway in UK and South Korea.
Maldives has also launched a global campaign titled, “Rediscover Maldives… The Sunny Side of Life”, which aims to create awareness among travellers about the pandemic travel situation in the country and the measures taken under the “new normal” guidelines, to ensure the health and safety of both tourists and staff.
