Sunny Side of Life campaign hijacked?

Reports of the slogan used to promote Maldives tourism, Sunny Side of Life, being hijacked have been published by international media since last night.

Renowned newspapers around the world such as The Guardian, Travel magazine, and The Daily Traveller have published reports implying that the current activities in Maldives have destroyed the campaigns carried out to promote the country’s tourism.

Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), the government company which promotes tourism, commenced the Twitter hashtag campaign #Sunnysideoflife on 5 July.

Questions have been raised on how this hashtag is being used, ever since MDP began its Direct and Immediate Action protest.

MMPRC when they officially launched #Sunnysideoflife, said that this hashtag will be made a global and popular trend on Twitter.

However over the past two days, the hashtag has been used to spread negative stories about Maldives on Twitter, mainly by supporters of MDP.

“#Maldives will never be a peaceful paradise until people power is restored & democracy is back on track #Sunnysideoflife,” Maldivian Ambassador to the UK in former President Nasheed’s administration Farahanaz Faisal said on Twitter.

In addition to #Sunnysideoflife, other hashtags such as #Maldives and #Alwaysnatural are also being used to boycott Maldives tourism and deter tourists from visiting Maldives.

Farahanaz Faisal told The Guardian in an interview that the purpose of the campaign was not to encourage tourists to boycott the Maldives, but simply raise awareness.

"It's important that people know the truth. There's a lot of brutality going on in the Maldives. It's just for people to understand that for people of the Maldives, the luxury resorts are far removed from their lives."

Former President Nasheed, in an interview with Financial Times during his visit to the US, urged tourists to cancel their travel bookings to Maldives.

Head of MMPRC and State Minister of Tourism Maleeh Jamal told Sun Online today that the campaign will not affect tourism in Maldives.

“These are planned attempts to boycott tourism in Maldives. This is their response, when we commence projects with groups like BBC to promote Maldives. Our promotion campaigns will not be affected by this. This is the result of former President Nasheed and his associates’ efforts to boycott the tourism industry,” Maleeh said.

Maleeh also expressed full confidence that #Sunnysideoflife will not be unsuccessful, and said that it is not true that the hashtag has been hijacked.

“The hashtag cannot be hijacked. Out of the people who use this hashtag on Twitter, very few are genuine. We are confident that our efforts to promote Maldives tourism will not be unsuccessful,” Maleeh said.

The change of government on 7 February 2012 had major negative effects on Maldives tourism, but since then the industry has shown signs of recovery.