Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has brought in a team of journalists and social media influencers from Italy, as part of the official tourism promotion body’s series of familiarisation trips to promote Maldives.
The team, which arrived in the Maldives on Sunday, consists of journalists from well-known publications such as GQ Italia, Vanity Fair, Turista.info, Viaggi Corriere and Il Giornale. Two of Italy’s most popular social media influencers, Roberto De Roza and Lorenzo Liverani, are also part of the team.
During their eight-day stay in the Maldives, the team will experience different types of products that are available in the Maldives, from guesthouses on local islands to resorts and liveaboards.
They will be staying at the recently opened Raffles Maldives Meradhoo resort as well as at The Sun Siyam Iru Fushi Maldives resort, White Lagoon Guesthouse in Fehendhoo island in Baa atoll, and Gahaa liveaboard operated by Voyages Maldives.
Their experiences in the Maldives will be featured as articles and photographs in their respective publications in Italy.
“This is the 16th group to arrive in the Maldives as part of a series of familiarisation trips organised by MMPRC this year. The aim of these trips is to further increase the exposure for the destination in the international markets,” a statement issued by MMPRC read.
“The purpose of this trip is to create awareness of the destination in the Italian market while reaching a wider audience, feature the products of the destination and highlight on the sustainable tourism initiatives practiced in Maldives.”
Italy ranks third amongst the source markets for Maldives tourism, after China and India, and ahead of markets such as Germany, Russia and the UK.
In 2018, 105,297 Italians visited the Maldives — an increase of 18.5 per cent over the 88,867 in the previous year. That growth is set to continue this year as well, as arrivals from Italy increased by 31.7 per cent to reach 97,375 in the January-September period.
The average stay for Italians, who were the first to spot the potential of tourism in the pristine atolls over four decades ago, in the Maldives is between four and 11 nights.
MMPRC kicked off the series of familiarisation trips in April, starting with a team of Indian journalists and bloggers. The official tourism promotion entity has so far brought in teams from the UK, China and South Korea and Australia, as well as countries from Eastern Europe.