Maldives won the award for the ‘Best Sea Destination’ at the Italia Travel Awards 2017 competing with Seychelles and Polynesia. The award was received by H.E. Dr. Hala Hameed the Permanent Representative of Maldives to UN offices in Geneva & Ambassador of Maldives to Swiss Federal Council. Maldives won the award for the ‘Best Beach Destination’ last year competing with Seychelles and Polynesia.
The Annual Italia Travel Awards took place on the 11th May 2017. The venue of this year’s ceremony was the elegant Roman Aquarium located in the heart of the Italy’s capital Rome. The event began with a guest reception followed by Gala Dinner and awarding ceremony.
Italia Travel Awards is held to celebrate commitment and expertise in the Italian tourism sector. It is considered as the Oscars of the travel industry in Italy. The main objective of the award is to encourage and boost professionalism and quality of the tourism industry.
The Italian Market is one of the source markets for the Maldivian tourism Industry. The Italian market showed signs of recovery in 2015 after four years of decline. Market share increased from 4.8% in 2014 to 5.5% in 2016. In 2016, 71,202 tourist arrivals were recorded from Italy which is an increase of 8.5% compared to 2015.
