Maldives is being showcased colorfully at China’s number one business to business platform, the China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM) which commenced on 16th April at the Beijing National Agricultural Exhibition Center.
The destination will be represented at a 102 Sqm Stand at COTTM with 16 participants from 9 companies from 16-18 April 2018. During the three-day exhibition, the Maldivian Ambassador to China, H. E. Mohamed Faisal, will lead the Maldives delegation along with other government officials from the Maldives Embassy based in China and the Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation.
The main focus of the bustling Maldives Stand 315 at Hall 11 is business meetings with travel industry professionals and exploring potential future collaborations to further promote Maldives in China. A number of activities are also being held at the Maldives stand to attract more interest towards the destination and to enhance their visit by experiencing a bit of the Sunny Side of Life.
Among the activities, visitors can experience the underwater beauty of the Maldives in a new dimension through virtual reality and have their names hand printed in Dhivehi language to be carried away as an artistic Maldivian calligraphy momento. Furthermore, visitors can also pose for pictures at the beautifully done stand depicting stunning scenes of the Maldivian islands, giving them the opportunity to win surprise goodies by posting the pictures on social media.
Entering its 14th 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. COTTM attracts over 4300 Chinese trade buyers, which is an increase of 18% on the 2016 event and 95% of the 2017 visitors said they would visit COTTM in 2018.
In 2017, the Maldives welcomed 306, 530 visitors from China, which represented 22% of total visitor arrivals to the country during the year. China has maintained its position of the largest single source market to the Maldives for the past 8 years and will continue to play an important role in the Maldives travel industry. Therefore, COTTM is one of the most ideal platforms to display Maldives vacation products to a prime audience.
