Registration for the Guesthouses Maldives Conference 2017 has opened, with organisers offering an incentive of free promotion for participating guesthouses at global travel trade fairs.
Registration for the second edition of the Guesthouses Maldives Conference, which is scheduled to be held at the main convention centre of Dharubaaruge in capital Male on September 23, is available online.
In a statement, local PR firm Maldives Getaways, which is organising the conference, said about 200 guesthouses would take part in the conference. More than 50 local and international travel agents are also expected to attend the day-long conference, it added.
“As an incentive, advertising space is offered free of charge for all participants from the Guesthouses Maldives guide, which would be distributed at 10 international travel trade shows over the course of the coming year,” the statement read.
The travel trade shows where the guide would be distributed include ITB Berlin, World Travel Mart (WTM) London, Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai and India International Travel Mart (IITM).
Maldives, known world over for its upmarket tourism industry, has resorts in the hundreds spread across the archipelago. The industry has in recent years expanded to introduce more affordable segments, including guesthouses and liveaboards. Some 330 guesthouses have started operations over the past five years as the number of travellers that choose to stay in guesthouses rise.
The annual Guesthouses Maldives Conference is aimed at bringing together owners and key stakeholders from the guesthouses and travel industry to discuss and share ideas on the challenges as well as the opportunities in the industry. Through the conference, the organisers target to find ways to bring in 500,000 tourists to guesthouses across the Maldives by the year 2020.
The first edition of the conference, which was held in Male in September 2016, was attended by over 160 guesthouse operators, local and international travel agents, tour operators, online travel agents (OTAs), airlines, government agencies and business leaders.