Finolhu Maldives has partnered with leading travel retail innovator Virgin Holidays to bring the resort’s retro chic Maldives experience to London.
The one-day pop-up event held last week saw Virgin Holidays’ newly refurbished flagship vroom store on London’s High Street Kensington transformed into a showcase of Finolhu’s retro chic experience. The resort’s resident Area 51 performance creatives were there to entertain visitors with acrobats, magicians and even a mermaid in a martini glass.
Since its founding in 1985, Virgin Holidays has grown to become one of the largest and most successful long-haul scheduled tour operators in the UK. The company offers holidays worldwide with destinations including the US and Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, India, the Indian Ocean, the Far East, Australia and the South Pacific.
Its flagship vroom store in London re-opened on June 2 following refurbishment. The revamped store follows a concept seen in the operator’s nine other dedicated vrooms across the UK, and features a bar, a dedicated area for children and a lounge.
Bringing a timeless sense of style to the pristine lagoons and rich waters of the Maldives’ Baa atoll, Finolhu, which opened in June 2016, is a refined, retro-inspired island paradise for the fun-loving beach-erati, and an unexpected revival of the halcyon days of the classic chic getaway. With its retro themed Maldives island concept, Finolhu, run by The Small Maldives Island Co., caters to guests seeking fun and adventure on a party atmosphere.
Britain is a major source market for the Maldives, with more than 100,000 British travellers visiting the Indian Ocean island nation last year — a 9.8 percent increase from the year before.
Despite a slowdown, growth in the UK market has continued this year as well. Official figures show that the number of British travellers that visited the Maldives in the first half of the year rose by 0.4 percent compared to the same period of last year to reach 51,737.