Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) in association with Six Senses Laamu has launched a video competition to promote Maldives tourism.

At a special ceremony held at Hotel Jen in capital Male Tuesday afternoon, the Adventure of Maldives (Dhivehi Aahitha) video competition was launched in the presence of tourism minister Moosa Zameer and MMPRC’s acting chief Haris Mohamed as well as senior officials from the ministry, MMPRC and Six Senses Laamu. Visit Maldives photography ambassadors, officials of various associations and media representatives also attended the ceremony, which included an information session about the competition, launch of the official trailer and a demonstration of the video submission process.

In a statement, MMPRC said the video competition is a co-promotional marketing activity aimed at showcasing personally shot videos of locals and tourists engaging in adventurous activities throughout the Maldives. The videos will have positive promotional value to the destination, it added.

“Adventures of Maldives has been defined as conventional adventure related activities in the Maldives such as scuba diving, island excursions, festivals, free diving, surfing, snorkelling, water sports, etc. and also as unconventional adventure related activities in the Maldives, the likes of which, we leave up to your creativity and imagination for definition,” the statement read.

According to MMPRC, videos can be submitted online until October 12. Submissions will be put up for voting from October 22 to November 5, followed by expert judging from November 12-30, it said.

The winner, who will be announced in the second week of December, is set to receive over MVR 100,000. Additionally, the top 10 videos will be featured on the official YouTube channel of MMPRC, and promoted on other social and online media channels of MMPRC, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as at international travel and trade fairs.

After years of double-digit growth in tourism, the Maldives has over the recent years observed a slowdown in growth. Tourist arrivals have crossed the one million milestone and is on course to reach 1.5 million by the end of this year, but the country has been struggling to create demand amidst a significant increase in bed capacity.

The government has recently announced new steps to maintain a structured growth in tourism, including a slowdown in leasing islands for resort development and increased marketing efforts in key markets such as China and the Middle East.