Thoyyib: Will hit 1.6 million tourist arrival goal in December

Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation's (MMPRC) Managing Director Thoyyib Mohamed states Maldives' goal to achieve 1.6 million tourist arrivals will be reached in early December. 

MMPRC plays a crucial role in advertising Maldives as an ideal tourist destination to foreign markets.

Speaking during an episode of PSM’s 'Raajje Miadhu' program, Thoyyib said efforts to reach this target were initiated the moment President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced the goal. He added that MMPRC always aims to exceed the set target. 

Maldives marked the arrival of 1.3 million tourists on October 31 of this year, exceeding the arrivals for the same period in the past two years. 

Thoyyib further stated that MMPRC utilized a different approach to marketing the island nation when it closed its doors to tourists at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic - attributing the arrivals seen today to these efforts. 

“We are people that need to adapt to the changes in the world. We remain steadfast in this. As a result of this, TGST, the most profitable tax today, is through tourism,” he said.

As per the statistics from the Tourism Ministry, 1,344,358 tourists have visited the Maldives so far this year, which is a 32.7 percent increase when compared to last year. In addition to this, last October saw more tourist arrivals than any other October in the history of Maldivian tourism. 

Under Thoyyib’s leadership, MMPRC has hosted webinars and e-learning programs, participated in exhibitions and fairs, and conducted joint marketing campaigns and outdoor advertisement campaigns in order to market and advertise the Maldives to different parts of the world.