Travel Trade Maldives (TTM), the first ever international travel trade show of Maldives, concluded successfully on Thursday, as business contracts worth over USD 1 billion were discussed during the two-day fair.
First edition of the annual travel trade show, which is organised by local PR firm Maldives Getaways, took place at the National Art Gallery in capital Male from Wednesday to Thursday.
In a statement, Maldives Getaways said over 100 hoteliers set meetings with over 150 agents and tour operators from across the globe. More than 3,000 scheduled meetings took place during the two days of the show, it added.
“TTM is the first of its kind to be held in the Maldives acting as a platform where stakeholders of the industry met in one place to finalise deals that would define the tourism industry of Maldives,” the statement read.
As a major component of TTM, a hotelier summit was held at the main convention centre of Dharubaaruge in Male from 9am to 1pm on Wednesday. Tourism industry pioneer Mohamed Umar Maniku delivered the keynote address, while motivational speaker Paul McNeive also addressed the summit.
In addition to the hotelier summit, which was sponsored by Bank of Maldives (BML), a tourism career fair was held as part of TTM, providing job seekers, students, employers, training institutions and government agencies an opportunity to network. The career fair was exhibited by resorts, liveaboards, leading hotel chains and service providers in the tourism industry.
Meanwhile, TTM gala night, held at Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi resort on Thursday, hosted Maldives Travel Awards – People’s Edition, which recognised 10 outstanding individuals from the hospitality industry.
Maldives recorded 1.2 million tourist arrivals in 2016 with a total of receipts around USD 2.5 billion. With the rapid changes in global travel markets, Maldives continues to strengthen its foothold as one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. While tourism still remains the leading economic industry in the country by far, innovative new approaches in marketing are required to ensure the sector remains at the top.
TTM aims to facilitate the tourism industry of Maldives to reach the ultimate target of two million tourists with over USD 3.5 billion in receipts by the end of 2020.