The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board together with Maldives tourism industry has participated in FITUR, the largest tourism fair held in Madrid, Spain from 19 – 23 January 2011.

Maldives representation at FITUR is important as this is the largest trade and consumer held in Spain targeting the travel trade and general public which offers the ideal platform to present our offers to a broader audience.  In contrast to the Internet and more traditional advertising, the fair gives us the opportunity to speak directly to potential customers and to convince them of our know-how.

This year FITUR brought together some 10,500 businesses from the tourism industry from 166 different countries and regions. These representatives occupied 10 halls at Feria de Madrid covering 75,000 square meters of net exhibition space.

This year, 20 representatives from 15 different companies and 2 officials of Maldives Tourism Promotion Board represented the Maldives delegation.  They included representation from some of the premium hotel brand as well as Tour Operators and Travel Agencies of the Maldives.  

As part of the promotional activities during the fair a raffle draw was organised to give away a free holiday prize to the Maldives for a couple for 7 night which was sponsored by Angsana Resort & Spa, Velavaru Maldives.  The main purpose of this draw was to drive more visitors to the Maldives stand and to convey the massage of voting for the Maldives as the New 7 Wonder of Nature campaign.

During the five day show a number of visitors voted for Maldives as the New 7 Wonder of Nature and over 500 visitors filled out the raffle vouchers distributed from the stand and participated in the raffle draw.

At the end of 2010 Spain attracted 8,912 tourists to the Maldives which was a 22.4 per cent growth compared to the figure at the end of 2009.

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For more information please contact:

Aminath Hudha, Senior Marketing Officer

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board

Telephone: +960 332 3228

Facsimile: +960 332 3229

Email: mtpb@visitmaldives.com

Website: www.visitmaldives.com