Travel Trade Maldives (TTM) 2019 kicked off on Tuesday.
The third edition of the annual travel trade fair began with the TTM Travel Summit at Bandos Maldives. The day-long summit focused on travel technology and analytics — a topic that helped the travel industry get acquainted with the potential of analytics, dynamic pricing and AI in delivering exceptional customer service and maximising profit.
The third edition of TTM Travel Summit saw keynote speeches and presentations by local and international experts.
Thoyyib Mohamed, Managing Director of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), delivered a presentation on marketing and promotion of Maldives as a destination. He outlined government policies strategies for the development of the tourism industry.
Professor Hassan Ugail, who heads the Centre for Visual Computing at the University of Bradford in UK, outlined how the hospitality industry could be radically transformed through the use of AI-driven social and psychological analytics. He highlighted how such shifts in thinking may not only provide proper pathways to cater to the generation Y and Z, but also provide highly individualised services which are increasingly demanded across the spectrum of holidaymakers.
Additionally, Anshu Shrivastava, the Area Director of Sales Southeast Asia at HRS International, expressed the significance of technology in the hospitality industry.
Experts from major source markets to the Maldives tourism industry also gave presentations, with Dr Marcus Lee, who is an expert on ‘China-Ready’ concept, detailing avenues for capturing the growing 200 million China outbound travel market. Massimo Loquenzi from Master Consulting, the PR firm for Visit Maldives in Italy, also spoke about Italy’s outbound travel market.
Meanwhile, representatives from world-renowned travel platforms such as Booking.com, Expedia, Make My Trip, Lonely Planet and dnata shared their views on the evolving nature of tourism and hospitality industry. Officials from travel publications such as TTN Middle East and TTG Asia also gave presentations on market trends.
TTM, the largest platform connecting the travel trade community of the Maldives to the global network of travel professionals, will continue on Wednesday with pre-scheduled meetings taking place at the main convention centre of Dharubaaruge in capital Male.
Over 100 resorts and hotels from the Maldives have confirmed their participation in the third edition of the first and largest international trade show in the Maldives. More than 250 international buyers and media professionals will attend the show. Premium Exhibitors include Adaaran Resorts, Kaimoo Hotels, Crown & Champa Resorts, Bandos Maldives, and Villa Hotels & Resorts.
Alongside the pre-scheduled meetings, the second Maldives Supplier Expo will take place at Dharubaaruge on Wednesday and Thursday. More than 50 suppliers will have one-on-one prescheduled meetings with over officials from procurement, accounts, finance, and F&B departments of over 100 resorts from the Maldives.
TTM 2019 will wrap up with a gala on Thursday evening at Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi resort.
TTM, which was launched in 2017 by local PR firm Maldives Getaways (now known as Orca Media Group), aims to facilitate the tourism industry of Maldives to reach the ultimate target of two million tourists per year with over USD 3.5 billion in receipts by the end of 2020.