With the greetings and well wishes of New Year 2019, Maldives has welcomed its first tourist visitor of the year. The celebrated guest was Khalid Kareem of Saudi Arabia visiting Maldives with his family to celebrate the New Year and the couple's wedding anniversary at Bandos Island Resort. They arrived on flight of Oman Air WY 381. The visitors were positively thrilled to find out that they were the first visitors.
Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporations (MMPRC) and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) organised the celebration as a welcome tea at the VIP Lounge of Velana International Airport (VIA). The visitors were escorted to the VIP lounge where they were welcomed by Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed, Managing Director of MMPRC Thoyyib Mohamed and other senior officials of MMPRC, Ministry of Tourism, MACL, Maldives Immigration and Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO).
A special gift symbolising the good will of Maldivians was presented to the visitor by the minister. An executive gift package from MMPRC was presented to the visitor by the Managing Director of MMPRC Thoyyib Mohamed. Gifts on behalf of MACL was presented to the visitor by acting Managing Director of MACL Moosa Solih. The visitor was also awarded a 7-day free holiday voucher by AaaVeee Nature's Paradise resort and return air tickets to Maldives by Oman Air.
Saudi Arabia market has been a rapidly growing market to Maldives over the recent months. The arrivals from Saudi Arabia show a positive growth of 16% from January to November when compared to the same period in 2017.
A total of 1,333,456 tourists arrived to Maldives from January to November 2018. It is a 7% growth when compared with the same period of 2017.