Maldives has kick-started a major destination marketing campaign with Travel Weekly.

The three-month campaign with Travel Weekly, one of the leading travel and trade publications in the United Kingdom, will take place from July until the end of October.

Maldives will be promoted through a microsite on Travel Weekly’s website, MPUs, digital magazines, social media channels and solus emails by relaying the latest developments in the country’s travel trade industry to readers.

“This campaign will serve a key role in broadening awareness and advertising the country as one of the most popular destinations among tourists in the United Kingdom,” Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), the official tourism promotion body of Maldives, said in a statement.

“The key objective of this campaign is to reassure tourists in the UK that the Maldives remains a safe and secure destination to travel to after Covid-19 and to promote Maldives as an ideal choice for long haul travels.”

Photos and articles published on Travel Weekly’s print magazine and multimedia platforms will present the Maldives as a destination whose dispersed geography and ‘one-island, one-resort’ concept lending itself to physical distancing and safe tourism.

A list of exciting activities tourists can experience on their vacation in Maldives will also be presented on Travel Weekly.

In 2019, a total of 125,199 Brits holidayed in the Maldives, while the number of British travellers that visited the Maldives in the three months ending March — when the country closed its borders — stood at 7,288.

With the UK being one of the leading source markets, MMPRC continues its efforts to boost the Maldives’ popularity among British holidaymakers.

Last year, Maldives was promoted through several media familiarisation trips, participation at WTM London, and outdoor advertisements placed at prominent locations in the UK.

This year, Maldives was promoted via the BBC Travel Show, and during the UNITE Indian Ocean & Middle East Event.

The new campaign with Travel Weekly comes a week after the Maldives reopened its borders.

Resorts and hotels on uninhabited islands as well as liveaboard vessels are now allowed to host tourists (please see a rolling list of resort reopenings here).

Guesthouses and hotels located on inhabited islands will be allowed to reopen on August 1. Passengers on cruise ships and yachts will be barred from disembarking at inhabited islands until then.

Thirty-day free on-arrival visa will be issued to all tourists with a confirmed booking for a stay at any registered tourist facility in the country. The entire holiday has to be booked at a single facility except for transit arrangements.

There will be no mandatory quarantine or testing on arrival. Tourists will only have to complete an online health declaration form.

But visitors with symptoms of the Covid-19 respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus or those travelling with someone who has similar symptoms will be tested at their expense.

Meanwhile, the British government is considering including the Maldives on its ‘air bridge’ countries list, allowing the tropical destination hugely popular with British holidaymakers to welcome UK tourists without the need to self-isolate on return.

Meanwhile, bookings from the UK for 2021 trips to the Maldives are on the rise.

In June, UK-based global travel firm Kuoni said bookings for the Maldives were outperforming every other destination in its collection, accounting for 56 per cent of bookings for 2021.

Recent Google search data has also shown the Maldives as the top holiday destination among Europeans for next year.

Photo: File photo shows the Maldivian delegation that attended the WTM London 2019.