Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) has hosted a destination stand at India International Travel Mart (IITM) 2018 Bangalore Edition.
During the fair being held from July 27-29, MATATO is joined by 10 companies from the Maldives tourism industry.
Established in 1998, India International Travel Mart has become one of India’s leading travel and tourism events. The events, held once a year in each of the Indian cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, gather tourism boards from India and abroad, airlines and cruise liners, travel agents and tour operators, online travel portals, hotels and resorts, and travel media to display and market their products. This exhibition is a great platform for the travel trade sector to meet and network with professionals for future collaborations and destination marketing.
Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities in the Asia Pacific region and has emerged as one of India’s fastest growing outbound travel markets. With the emergence of a high tech and a highly paid workforce, Bangalore is also amongst the highest spenders on leisure and corporate travel.
According to MATATO, IITM Bangalore marks the fourth travel trade event hosted this year by MATATO in India under its Indian Market Strategy initiative – an exclusive destination marketing campaign that aims to attract 100,000 tourists from India by the end of 2018. Under this initiative, travel trade events have been staged in major Indian metropolises, including New Delhi and Mumbai, it said.
India has become a major emerging source market for the Maldives’ tourism industry. Official figures show that 83,019 tourists arrived in Maldives from its closest neighbour last year, a 24 percent increase from the 66,955 Indian travellers that chose the Maldives in 2016.
That growth is expected to continue this year as well, as the number of Indian tourists that visited the Maldives recorded a 9.5 percent increase in the first six months to reach 41,082 compared to the 37,529 in the same period last year.
