Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has kicked off a dedicated roadshow in China as part of its “Journey to the Sunny Side” roadshow series.
The roadshow is being held from November 25 to December 2 in four prominent cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
The four-city roadshow aims to maximise the Maldives brand exposure in the Chinese market. This event serves as a platform for Maldives tourism industry partners to showcase products and network with top travel trade industry partners to increase tourist arrivals from the target market.
Eleven companies from the Maldives tourism industry have participated in the roadshow to create potential opportunities and to further strengthen their relationship with Chinese tour operators.
In addition to a destination presentation and one-to-one networking sessions, a raffle draw winner will be chosen from each city and awarded a complimentary holiday package to the Maldives, with sponsorship from Paradise Island Resort, Sun Island Resort & Spa, Robinson Club Maldives and Furaveri Maldives.
Based on the arrival figures for the first nine months of this year, China has retained its position as the best performing source market to the Maldives, accounting for 18.4 per cent of the total tourist arrivals in the period.
During January-September period, 230,349 tourists visited the Maldives from China — a 3.7 per cent increase over the same period last
year.
MMPRC has carried out several activities to further boost arrivals from the Chinese market.
The official tourism promotion body participated in China’s biggest outbound travel trade fair, China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM). This fair recorded more than 200,000 visitors from the travel trade industry.
MMPRC had also conducted social and digital media campaigns, outdoor advertising campaigns and familiarisation trips to enhance the Maldives brand exposure in China.
A joint campaign with Singapore Airlines is also being carried out in this market.
The roadshow in China marks the end of the “Journey to the Sunny Side” roadshows planned for 2019. As part of the series, 13 roadshows in 41 cities have been conducted this year.