Visit Maldives is hosting key journalists from the Russia and CIS market to promote Maldives as a safe haven for travellers and to showcase the unique experiences in the Maldives with a specific focus on safety, luxury and eco-initiatives of the destination.

From February 5-12, journalists from Kazakhstan were in the Maldives. The press team include chief editors from Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar which has a huge circulation and reach in the market.

In addition to the group from Kazakhstan, a team of Russian journalists arrived Thursday. The team of chief editors from top publications such as KP.ru, RIA and Hello!Russia will also experience similar luxury and eco initiatives offered in the host resorts.

The media team from Kazakhstan stayed at Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort and Spa for the first half of their stay where they experienced activities such as sustainable initiatives implemented by the property, signature cuisines in unique locations, snorkelling, water sports and cultural activities.

For the latter half of their stay, the team stayed at Kuramathi Maldives, and had the opportunity to visit the resort’s Eco Centre, a guided tour of the house reef and the resort’s signature spa.

The Russian team of journalists will also stay in Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort and shift to Robinson Club Noonu for the second half of their stay. The team is also expected to experience the unique activities offered by each of the host properties.

The Russia market is a traditionally strong market to the Maldives and is performing exceptionally well since the reopening of the borders on July 15. Presently, Russia is the top market in terms of arrival to the Maldives.

In addition to this, markets from the CIS region such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan has been showing increased growth in terms of arrivals with Kazakhstan being among the top 10 in terms of arrivals since the start of direct flights from Almaty by Air Astana in December.

Several initiatives are underway to market the destination in Russia & CIS region. In this regard, high impact campaigns on both offline and online platforms are in the pipeline for the market with several collaborations with key stakeholders in the market.