Maldives has showcased its tourism products and services at the TTG Incontri fair in Italy.

In a statement, tourism promotion body Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) said its officials along with 38 representatives from 21 companies from the industry are taking part in the travel trade fair being held in Rimini from Thursday to Saturday.

According to MMPRC, the Maldives is being represented in a 64 square metre space.

Tourism products that the Maldives has to offer are portrayed in different ways that are effective, yet fun and colourful. One of the interesting activities include a photo corner where visitors can take photographs of themselves at the Maldives stand and post it on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtags #visitmaldives and #TTG2017 for a chance to win a surprise gift. Visitors can also experience the underwater beauty of Maldives through Virtual Reality by using advanced VR Glasses.

“The major objective of participating in TTG Incontri is to increase the popularity of Maldives in the Italian Market and to increase the number of arrivals. Through participation at TTG Incontri, will help towards achieving the targets for the Italian market,” the statement read.

TTG Incontri is the most attended travel trade event in Italy. Although the target is mainly the Italian market, exhibitors are offered the unique opportunity to meet with representatives from various sectors of the tourism industry from all over the world. TTG also creates an effective networking opportunity between product creators and distributors.

Italy is one of the major source markets to the Maldives tourism industry with a total number of 71,202 tourists having visited the Maldives in 2016 — an increase of 8.5 percent compared to the previous year. By the end of August, 7,227 Italian tourists were recorded to have visited Maldives. This is an 11.1 percent increase in arrivals compared to the same period of last year.