Visit Maldives has launched a social media campaign to make Maldives a top of the mind destination in the Japanese market and to increase engagement with tourists.

Hosted until January 2022, the campaign will increase brand awareness in Japan and reassure Japanese travellers that Maldives will remain as one of the safest destinations to travel to when the Japanese borders reopen for leisure travel.

As part of the eight-month-long campaign, official Visit Maldives social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) will be created specifically for the Japanese market and all content produced in these platforms will be in Japanese.

A holiday voucher will be offered at the beginning of the campaign to increase engagement and provide the opportunity for a lucky winner to enjoy a free holiday in Maldives.

During the campaign, Visit Maldives aims to reach six million people and promote the destination.

The campaign is aligned with Visit Maldives’ strategy for the Japanese market to utilise Japanese language in all the promotional activities.

Maldives will also be promoted as a safe haven during the social media campaign.

Japanese travellers are currently not able to travel due to travel restrictions for leisure travel. However, Visit Maldives aims to maintain the destination presence and conduct marketing activities to ensure Maldives remains the most preferred destination for Japanese travellers once the country allows leisure travel.

At the end of 2019, Maldives recorded 44,251 arrivals from Japanese market.

In order to increase the arrivals numbers to pre-pandemic level and keep the destination presence across Japanese market, Visit Maldives has planned several marketing activities this year such as familiarisation trips, a promotion with Tabi Muse, and participation in Tourism Expo Japan (JATA).

Maldives reopened its borders for tourists of all nationalities in July 2020, with rigorous procedures in place to ensure the safety of tourists and tourism workers.

Tourists are required to fill an online health declaration form within 24 hours prior to their departure, as well as have a negative PCR test result, conducted 96 hours prior to their departure.

The administration of the Covid-19 vaccine was initiated on February 1, with the government of Maldives set to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to all citizens and residents of the country in the upcoming months.

Visit Maldives together with the tourism ministry has also launched the “I’m Vaccinated” campaign in order to share a positive message regarding the vaccination of staff working in the tourism sector as well as promoting the initiatives undertaken to ensure the Maldives remains one of the safest destinations in the world for travellers.

The ultimate target is to make Maldives the destination with the first fully vaccinated tourism sector in the world.