Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has planned several marketing activities to increase arrivals from the Indian market and regain its destination presence. To facilitate this, MMPRC has commenced two notable campaigns and participated in SATTE GenX – virtual exhibition today, 5th October 2020.
South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange; SATTE GenX is South Asia’s First Virtual Exhibition on the travel and tourism industry. Today MMPRC has taken part in this two-day virtual exhibition. The exhibition provides an opportunity to interact and connect with potential buyers from India. Furthermore, a wide range of exhibitors from the Indian tourism industry is also taking part. MMPRC will showcase the Maldives in a separate virtual pavilion along with 11 industry co-exhibitors.
Campaign on Wedding Network
The first campaign is with India’s number one wedding network, Wedding Sutra (weddingsutra.com). Wedding Sutra is home to one of the largest wedding audiences in India. The wedding network passionately engages with brides to be on their platforms. Thus, making it the number one wedding brand on Instagram. Wedding Sutra has over a million members on Facebook and over 2.5 million total followers on social media.
This six-month-long campaign will further heighten significant awareness among the growing market of Wedding and Honeymoon segments in India. Wedding Sutra will advertise the Maldives on their social media accounts. Moreover, honeymoon stories that took place in Maldives will be amplified on their channels. According to MMPRC, The aim of this campaign is to market Maldives as one of the most preferred destinations for Indian tourists to travel to post COVID-19, especially for newly married couples and honeymooners. In this regard, the campaign will showcase special aspects of the destination, as well as available benefits in these segments.
Radio Campaign
The second campaign is a nationwide radio campaign in India. In this campaign Maldives will be promoted in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, and Cochin via multi leading radio channels in each city.
his radio campaign will run from 5th to 16th October 2020. Its aim is to capture the Indian audience and promote the sunny side of life by fostering strong connections with consumers in each city. MMPRC has provided opportunities for 3 selected properties to promote themselves during the campaign. This highlights the available experiences in these properties, as well as throughout the Maldives. It has an estimated reach of 20.8 to 29.7 million listeners by the end of the campaign which will further enhance the visibility of the destination in greater India.
The Indian Market
The Air Bubble initiative which commenced on 25th August is a first for India within this region to boost tourism. The Air bubble has also enabled a regular path with weekly flights between two countries. Flights from Air India and Indigo started operations from New Delhi and Bangalore to the Maldives. Furthermore, more airlines are to be confirmed soon. This will aid in the much-anticipated increase in tourist arrivals from the Indian market.
Based on the arrival figures of 2019, India ranked in the 2nd position of the highest performing markets to the Maldives. India is a key focus market in the recovery of tourism in the Maldives and the target is to achieve pre-pandemic growth levels.
