Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has colourfully showcased Maldives at China's number one B2B Fair, China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market 2018 (COTTM) in Beijing, China.
Entering its 15th consecutive year, COTTM is widely recognized as the industry's most important platform and remains the only business-to-business event that focuses solely on the growing outbound tourism market in China. While China is the main contributing market to the Maldives tourism industry, the Maldives presence was showcased at COTTM with 20 participants from 10 companies.
During the three-day exhibition, Maldivian Ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal represented the Maldives delegation along with other government officials from the Maldives Embassy in China, MMPRC and representatives from the Maldivian tourism industry. The delegation met with travel industry professionals and discuss potential future collaborations to further promote Maldives in China.
This year, various activities were held at the Maldives stand for the visitors to experience a bit of the Sunny side of life. The activities include calligraphy, where names of visitors attending the stand are written in Maldivian language. Maldivian traditional snacks were displayed at the stand where visitors got to taste authentic Maldivian snacks. Visitors can also experience underwater beauty of Maldives through a virtual reality headset.
Additionally visitors posed for pictures near the photo booth placed at the stand, using a frame board and post it on social media to win a surprise gift. In 2018, the Maldives welcomed 283-thousand-116 visitors from China, which represented 19.1 percent of total visitor arrivals to the country during the year.
China has been the biggest source market for the Maldives for the past 9 years and will continue to play an important role in the Maldives travel industry. COTTM is the perfect platform to display Maldives vacation products to a prime audience, according to MMPRC.