Maldives is currently exhibiting at the World Travel Market (WTM) held in London, United Kingdom from 6th – 8th November 2017. This year, 195 delegates from 70 companies across the Maldives tourism sector including Resorts, Hotels, Guest Houses, Travel Agencies, Associations, Airline Operators, are representing Maldives at the fair. The Maldives contingent is led by high level government officials, H.E. Mohamed Anil, Attorney General and H.E. Ahmed Shiaan, Ambassador of Maldives to UK, Belgium & EU.
Apart from major business to business collaborations, the major activity of Maldives at the fair was a Maldives Press Conference highlighting on the topic of Economic transformations by the government of Maldives and its impact on tourism development, which was held on the first day of the fair. Speakers of the press conference were H.E Mohamed Anil, Attorney General; Hon. Hussain Afeef, Vice Chairman of The Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) and H.E. Ahmed Shiaan, Ambassador of the Maldives to UK, Belgium & EU. The press conference was attended by over 70 UK and International travel and main stream media. Main local news channels of Maldives also participated at the press conference and at the fair exclusively bringing daily news to the Maldives from London.
Maldives is being represented at a 276 Sqm double storey stand designed in an attractive contemporary style showing images of the beauty of the country. This year’s stand has been enhanced to accommodate the increasing number of industry partners participating at the fair year on year implying the significance of the fair to the partners which is a positive indication.
WTM, now in its 37th year is one of the leading global events for the travel industry. The event brings together almost 5000 exhibiting destinations, technology and private sector companies to find and network with 51,000 travel professionals, key industry buyers, journalists & digital influencers. WTM offers the opportunity to discover the world under one roof and discover trends, issues and innovations in the travel industry.
UK is one of the major source markets to the Maldives. Arrival figures from January to September rank UK in third position for highest performing markets to the Maldives accounting for 7.6% of total market share. 101,843 tourist arrivals were recorded from UK last year, an increase of 9.8% compared to 2015. January to September 2017 recorded 75,506 arrivals from the UK.
