Maldives remains GCC travellers’ preferred travel destination In 2022

Most countries have now eased the travel restrictions imposed at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Maldives, a popular travel destination known for its sunny beaches and blue waters, is ready for an influx of tourism after the ease of Covid restrictions. The Maldives reopened its borders for international tourists in July 2020. More than 6,000 visitors have travelled to the Maldives from the Emirates since then. Maldives is easily accessible to tourists from the UAE, which makes it a popular travel destination.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Tourism of Maldives, over 359,000 tourists have visited the Maldives so far this year as compared to 241,407 arrivals in 2021 for the same period. This year the Maldives aims to welcome 1.6 million tourists from all over the world. YouGov’s Travel and Tourism: Brand and Destination Rankings 2022 reveals that Maldives has secured a place in the top 10 destinations for UAE travellers. This indicates an expected surge in tourists travelling to the Maldives from the UAE.

Visit Maldives is gearing up to create more possibilities for tourists to choose Maldives as the preferred destination for travellers from the UAE region. Visit Maldives partnered up for the 10th edition of the MICE Arabia and Luxury Travel (MALT) Congress as the official destination partner, which took place on March 30-31 in Dubai.

The MICE Arabia and Luxury Travel Congress is an annual event conducted for buyers and suppliers in the Middle East, featuring expert sessions and business appointments. The perfect platform for networking, it is the region’s most exclusive event for individuals in the B2B space. An engaging experience for participants in the travel industry, the MALT is a two-day event that is organised to make connections, build networks to discuss luxury travel, and be on top of the travel game. It allows suppliers to meet and attract buyers for meetings, events, incentives, and business and luxury travel from the Middle East to their destination. As for the buyers, they can choose from a host of options in terms of cost optimisation, revenue models, pre-and post-pandemic technologies, thus keeping up with the changing trends in the travel industry. The tenth milestone edition of the MALT Congress saw an attendance of more than 200 buyers from across the GCC.

Thoyyib Mohamed, CEO and managing director of Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation shed light on why the Maldives is constantly recommended as an attractive destination for travellers from the Middle East. “The Maldives is brimming with freshness. One of the main reasons behind the Maldives’ success in the tourism industry is that our industry offers a slice of paradise for all types of travellers on any budget. We officially launched homestay tourism this year, and just last year we launched our ‘Redefining MICE’ campaign.