The Maldivian association or Travel Agents and Tour Operators is committed to increasing the numbers of Indian Tourists visiting this island destination and is actively taking measures towards realising this objective.
Speaking exclusively to Skift in an interview, Abdulla Ghiyas, the president of the Association revealed that Indian tourists visits to the Maldives are down by 40%.
At the beginning of January, there was a hashtag #BoycottMaldives on Indian social media platforms because of diplomatic conflict between India and Maldives where Indians accused Maldivian politicians for making derogatory comments about their PM Narendra Modi
Promotions in Indian cities
Ghiyas added that his firm would be holding roadshows in three Indian cities within July. Bengaluru will be one of them he told Skift
Additionally, we also have plans to partner with influential figures in Indian social media. He said “We’d also like to look at potentially working with tourism boards in Maldives as part of our previous successful partnerships.” There have been talks about what action if any the board might take regarding India.
He waned specifically explore cities with direct transportation links into and out of Maldive during those road shows held in July.
Ghiyas prefers having done the roadshow earlier on since May is when outbound travel from India peaks; however, he promised further roadshows later sometime within the year with a view of covering tier 2 towns. “Even though these towns do not provide flights directly into Maldives they would still be a major market.”
