Business
Telegraph Travel Awards open for voting with luxury Maldives holiday prize
Telegraph Travel Awards have opened for voting with the chance to win a luxury holiday in the Maldives worth USD 39,108.
The categories included in the highly acclaimed awards include best country, best city, best short haul airline, best long haul airline, best tour operator, best tour operator, best specialist tour, best rail operator, best escorted tour, best hotel group, best ocean cruise line, best river cruise line, best ferry operator and best ski company.
For those who complete the survey, Telegraph is offering the chance to win one of 20 luxury holidays, including a 14-night stay at Coco Bodu Hithi in the Maldives with Coco Collection worth USD 39,108.

The prize includes 14 nights in a Coco Residence at Coco Bodu Hithi, including daily breakfast at Stars, lunch and dinner at Air, return airport transfers by speedboat and international economy flights with Qatar Airways. The prize is available for a year from November 1, 2017, excluding Dec 20, 2017 to January 6, 2018, February 11–21, 2018 and March 29-7 April 2018. All soft drinks at mealtimes are included but alcoholic drinks are not included. Excursions and activities are also not included in the prize.
Near enough to the main Velana International Airport and accessible by speedboat in just 40 minutes, yet far away from the hustle and bustle to be able to enjoy unobstructed panoramic views, Coco Bodu Hithi is a gem of an island. The winner of Most Romantic Resort at the 2016 South Asia Travel Awards, every villa at Coco Bodu Hithi is surrounded by the calm view of the lagoon and the soothing sound of the waves.
There is something different to discover at each of the five restaurants and two bars on the island, all with views of the lagoon and sunset. Winner of Luxury Seafood Restaurant in Maldives at the 2016 World Luxury Hotels Awards, Aqua is Coco Bodu Hithi’s fine-dining restaurant and boasts a distinctively romantic feel. Michelin-starred chefs visit the island every year to create one-off experiences – a testament to the resort’s reputation for serving some of the best food and drink in the Maldives.
As well as fantastic food, Coco Bodu Hithi offers an award-winning wellness zone on stilts over the clear water. Coco Spa has eight treatment rooms as well as a yoga pavilion overlooking the ocean and beach. With a range of products from the Paris label Thémaé combining the healing properties of tea, therapists at Coco Spa are trained in techniques to treat the mind, body and soul. An over-water gym within the zone inspires our guests to keep up with their regime of active wellness when away on a holiday.
Blessed with one of the best House Reefs in North Malé atoll, the over-water villas have been built with a conscious approach to not disrupt the healthy House Reef, which is home to an abundance of colourful reef fish, resident Hawksbill sea turtles, eagle rays and reef sharks. Just 15 minutes away is another reef dubbed the Turtle Point, one of the most loved snorkelling sites in the region where Hawksbill turtles are often spotted. Reef Manta Rays are often spotted 15 minutes away from our island at Rasfari Point or Bodu Hithi Thila.

The renowned British newspaper’s annual Travel Awards are not only the biggest of their kind, but they have long been the most trusted in the industry. They are voted for entirely by Telegraph readers who are among the most experienced, discerning and adventurous of travellers, and the number of responses dwarf all other awards of this type. Telegraph also assures that the methodology is sound and transparent; the results are qualitative, not quantitative, so it does not follow that the bigger the operator the better their chances of winning.
In last year’s edition of the Telegraph Travel Awards, Maldives was voted the second most favourite country amongst British travellers.
Britain is a major source market for the Maldives tourism industry. More than 100,000 British travellers visited the Maldives last year, a 9.8 percent increase from the year before.
Business
Feydhoo Hall opens at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives as new event space
Dusit International, one of Thailand’s leading hotel and property development companies, has announced the opening of Feydhoo Hall, a landmark event venue at dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives, redefining the possibilities for meetings, celebrations, and destination events in the Maldives.
Designed to bring scale, flexibility, and creativity to island gatherings, Feydhoo Hall represents a bold step forward in positioning the Maldives as a dynamic destination for conferences, weddings, and large-scale social occasions.
Feydhoo Hall offers a versatile event complex designed to accommodate a wide range of gatherings, from corporate meetings and conferences to weddings and social celebrations.

At its core is the 390 sqm Main Hall, capable of hosting:
- Up to 300 guests in theatre-style setup
- Up to 240 guests for dining and banquet-style events
- Up to 200 guests for cocktail-style receptions
- Up to 144 guests in cluster-round configuration
Enhancing the flexibility of the venue are additional dedicated spaces, including:
- A 110 sqm Veranda Terrace, ideal for welcome receptions, breakout sessions, and pre-event gatherings, accommodating up to 100 guests for cocktail-style events.
- A spacious 1,000 sqm Lawn Space, perfect for large-scale outdoor celebrations, destination weddings, and open-air events, accommodating up to 400 guests for cocktail receptions and up to 350 guests for dining setups.
- The 55 sqm Ekugai Meeting Room, designed for smaller meetings and executive sessions, accommodating up to 30 guests in theatre or dining setup and 24 guests in cluster-round format.
Together, these integrated spaces create a seamless indoor-outdoor event experience, allowing planners to design dynamic and personalised event journeys.
True to the dusitD2 brand’s lifestyle-driven philosophy, Feydhoo Hall introduces a fresh approach to meetings and events — where productivity meets creativity in an inspiring island setting.
The venue offers flexible meeting formats designed to suit different event needs, including:
- Half-Day Meeting Package (4 hours) — ideal for focused sessions, executive meetings, and creative workshops.
- Full-Day Meeting Package (8 hours) — designed for immersive conferences, extended workshops, and large-scale corporate gatherings.
These thoughtfully structured packages provide planners with the flexibility to create impactful and seamless experiences, whether hosting intimate strategy sessions or dynamic full-day events.

Located just seven minutes by speedboat from Velana International Airport, dusitD2 Feydhoo Maldives combines accessibility with vibrant lifestyle energy, offering event planners and guests a rare balance between convenience and tropical escape.
With the introduction of Feydhoo Hall, the resort strengthens its position as a versatile destination — not only for leisure travellers but also for international conferences, creative retreats, luxury weddings, and large-scale social celebrations seeking something refreshingly different in the Maldives.
Business
BBM expands retail presence with new Hulhumalé outlet
Bestbuy Maldives (BBM) opened a new wholesale store in Hulhumalé Phase 2 on Monday.
The outlet is located on the ground floor of Lot 20286, Nirolhu Magu, and is intended to improve access to BBM’s imported goods for residents of Hulhumalé Phase 2 and for businesses operating in the area.
According to the company, the opening forms part of its plan to expand services closer to customers in line with population growth in Hulhumalé.
With the opening of the new store, BBM’s full range of imported and distributed products will be available at the Hulhumalé Phase 2 location. These include consumer goods from international brands such as Lifebuoy, Vaseline and Unilever.
The store will also stock wholesale food products from brands including Daily, Cavin’s and Redman.
BBM has supplied goods to resorts, hotels and retail outlets across the Maldives for several years.
Action
Ataraxis Grand & Spa hosts integrated work-and-dive corporate retreat in Fuvahmulah
Ataraxis Grand & Spa recently hosted a week-long, closed corporate offsite in Fuvahmulah for a US-based artificial intelligence company, highlighting the island’s growing suitability for integrated work-and-experience retreats. The retreat brought a group of 36 international professionals to the property, which was reserved exclusively for the programme.
Designed as a private company offsite, the stay combined structured daily work sessions with guided diving and beginner-friendly surf experiences, creating a balanced format that blended focused collaboration with physical reset.

A notable component of the programme was dive training and certification. During the retreat, 17 participants completed their Open Water certification, while a further six undertook the Advanced Open Water course, with training and dives scheduled alongside work sessions as part of the integrated itinerary.
Throughout the week, participants worked on-site using dedicated shared spaces supported by reliable high-speed internet, allowing meetings, informal collaboration and scheduled activities to take place within a single, uninterrupted environment. This setup enabled teams to move seamlessly between work periods and organised ocean activities without leaving the property.

Fuvahmulah’s natural and operational advantages formed a key part of the retreat’s appeal. As one of the Maldives’ largest inhabited islands, it offers immediate access to pelagic dive sites, internationally recognised shark diving and surf breaks suitable for instruction, alongside the infrastructure required to support extended group stays.

The offsite reflects a growing preference among technology and knowledge-sector teams for small-scale retreats that prioritise concentrated work environments and team cohesion over traditional conference formats. Such programmes typically involve longer stays and higher per-capita spend, aligning with sustainable, quality-driven tourism models.
The retreat also demonstrates how locally operated properties such as Ataraxis Grand & Spa are supporting this shift by delivering unified environments where accommodation, workspaces, connectivity and curated experiences operate as a single programme rather than separate services.

As organisations continue to explore alternative formats for strategy sessions, team resets and creative offsites, Ataraxis Grand & Spa’s experience positions Fuvahmulah as an increasingly viable destination for integrated corporate retreats.
Ataraxis Grand & Spa offers work-and-dive retreat programmes in Fuvahmulah that combine accommodation, dedicated workspaces, high-speed connectivity and organised diving and surfing.

Further information on retreat formats and dive-inclusive stays is available via the Ataraxis Grand & Spa website.
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