Visit Maldives has successfully launched two major marketing activities in China, including the launching of Maldives Online Roadshow and information portal for travel trade on WeChat.

Maldives Online Roadshow is being held from November 30 to December 2.

The roadshow is divided into three sections. The first section is a webinar which was held on November 30. During the webinar, an in-depth presentation of Maldives tourism was given to the travel trade.

“The objective of the webinar is to reassure the participating travel agents that Maldives is a relatively safe destination and a safe haven for their clients to visit, following the re-opening of outbound travel from China,” a statement issued by Visit Maldives read.

The other sections of the roadshow includes an online exhibition, which will be live from November 30 till the end of February 2021, and one-on-one meetings from December 1-2.

Together with 11 tourism industry partners, Visit Maldives has been sharing up to date travel and product information with the top travel agents from China via the online exhibition.

Visit Maldives will be partaking in scheduled one-to-one meetings where emphasis will be given to marketing the safety standards put in place to ensure that Maldives is one of the safest destinations to travel to and that the geographical formation of the island nation further aids in this.

In addition, these meetings will also help to identify strategies to further improve the market performance and strengthen the presence of the destination within the market.

During the roadshow, Visit Maldives is also launching the China Travel Trade information portal. This portal is a mini programme available on WeChat.

WeChat is one of the most popular social media apps in China, which has over 1.2 billion monthly active users and is known to be one of the most important information hubs for Chinese travellers.

WeChat mini programmes are built-in apps within the WeChat ecosystem, connecting Chinese people’s social life from communication to service.

China Travel Trade information portal can be accessed by China travel trade via WeChat without installing any additional application.

The main objective of the portal is to continue the efforts of rebuilding confidence in the destination and to maintain direct communication with the Chinese travel trade by sharing up to date information.

China has been one of the key source markets to Maldives for the past 10 years. A total of 284,029 tourist arrivals were recorded from China to Maldives in 2019.

Prior to the closing of borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 31,744 Chinese arrivals were recorded in January which was a 23 per cent growth compared to the same period last year.

Visit Maldives has been continuously running several campaigns throughout the year to reassure Chinese visitors and keep them dreaming of the destination.

The hope is to continue the growth of tourist arrivals from China when outbound travel resumes from the market once again.

The campaigns include several digital campaigns on Weibo and WeChat, Outdoor Campaigns in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, several Media interviews, and joint campaigns with tour operators.