Maldives hosted a colourful celebration to welcome the one millionth tourist to the country on 12 August 2022. The main event was organized by the Ministry of Tourism and successfully completed with assistance from Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), and Maldives Immigration. This milestone of welcoming the one millionth tourist to the sunny side of life was achieved much earlier compared to last year, when one million arrivals were touched in October of 2021.
This year’s one-millionth visitor was Mrs. Kilnarova Daniela who was received by the traditional boduberu procession led by the locally well-known Bidhabin Boduberu group. In attendance during this event were tourism industry partners, media, VIP & officials from the Ministry of Tourism, MMPRC, MACL, and Immigration. A citizen of the Czech Republic, Mrs. Kilnarova came for a holiday in the Maldives with her husband Kilnar Ales. Mrs. Kilnarova Daniela was presented with special gifts for becoming the one-millionth visitor of 2022.
The token by MMPRC was presented to Mrs. Kilnarova Daniela by the CEO & MD of MMPRC Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed. The token presented was known as ‘Tannu’, the casing historically used to deliver royal messages from the Sultan from when our nation was still a Sultanate. It is made of sculpted wood and handcrafted Maldivian lacquer work called ‘liyelaa jehun’.”
Speaking about this decisive achievement, the CEO and MD of MMPRC, Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed commended all involved in realising this achievement despite numerous challenges faced due to global issues.
“This is a joyous occasion to be able to welcome one million tourists to our shores despite the hurdles we are facing. This is a combined effort of government authorities, policymakers, tourism sector employees, and stakeholders who are working hard, day and night, to get here. And while we celebrate this milestone, it hardly means our work is over- in fact we have to strengthen our efforts, with renewed dedication to defend our position as the World’s Leading Destination and achieve our targets. MMPRC has been and will continue our efforts to market the Sunny Side of Life globally.”
Earlier this year, the President of the Maldives, His Excellency President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced that the nation aims to welcome 1.6 million tourist visitors to the Maldives in 2022. MMPRC has been steadfast in their efforts to promote the Maldives and maintain destination presence across key markets, including the Middle Eastern market. Saudi Arabia remains one of the top source markets for Maldives and ranks in the top 10 in terms of tourist arrivals.
In order to maintain the momentum of making Maldives the most sought-after destination in 2022 and to further increase the arrival figure from the Middle Eastern and GCC markets, Visit Maldives continues to conduct exciting activities in 2022 targeting the travel trade and consumers in the region, including familiarization trips, multi-city roadshows, outdoor advertising in target markets, participation in fairs and several collaboration and joint campaigns with top parties. These efforts have played an instrumental role in positioning Saudi Arabia as one of the top source markets for Maldives this year.
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