Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has officially launched its Photography Ambassador Programme, signing up with five local photographers to promote the Maldives’ tourism industry.
Ambassadorship agreements were signed with the five photographers at a special ceremony held Wednesday morning at the MMPRC office in capital Male. Deputy tourism minister Hussain Lirar, MMPRC’s acting managing director Haris Mohamed, and top officials from the ministry and MMPRC attended the ceremony.
The five photographers that have been appointed as photography ambassadors are:
- Ahmed Shuau (Instagram: Obofili)
- Mohamed Azmeel (Instagram: DoubleDot.mv)
- Shifaaz Shamoon (Instagram: Sotti.maldives)
- Ali Masrah (Instagram: Masrahnaseem
- Ramon Nasrullah Kamaluddeen (Instagram: Ramon_photography)
In a statement, MMPRC said the Photography Ambassador Programme is designed to stimulate and empower the local photography industry. It is created to offer a new platform for established as well as upcoming local photographers to be recognised internationally and venture into new international tourism-based domains, it added.
“It is the belief of MMPRC that this programme can help to create more job opportunities for local photographers within the Maldives tourism industry,” the statement read.
According to the state tourism promotion company, the photography ambassadors will be working closely to promote the destination, “Maldives… the sunny side of life”. The photographs taken by these ambassadors will be utilised on the official website as well as social media channels of MMPRC, and at international travel and trade shows such as ITB Berlin, it said.
After years of double-digit growth in tourism, the Maldives has over the recent years observed a slowdown in growth. Tourist arrivals have crossed the one million milestone and is on course to reach 1.5 million by the end of this year, but the country has been struggling to create demand amidst a significant increase in bed capacity.
The government has recently announced new steps to maintain a structured growth in tourism, including a slowdown in leasing islands for resort development and increased marketing efforts in key markets such as China and the Middle East.