The Maldives has been awarded as the “Best Diving Area” and “Best Dreaming Area” in the Dive & Travel Awards 2010 held during the Marine Diving Fair, Tokyo, Japan from 02 – 04th April 2010. The voting was carried out amongst the readers of the both magazines targeted to the divers; “Travel Diver” and “Marine Diving” , based on the “Reader’s Choice Award”
Maldives won the “Best Diving Area” after competing with the world famous dive favourites Palau and Ishigaakee Island. The competitors for the “Best Dreaming Area” include Palau and French Polynesia.
The awards were collected by the Maldives High Commissioner to Japan, Hon. Mr. Amir Khaleel.
Apart from the above “Island Safari Royal” and “Soleil” from the Maldives won 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the “Best Liveaboard” category.
Marine Dive Fair remains as the largest fair held in Japan targeted to the divers creating an opportunity to decide and arrange their dive holidays.
Hon. Mr. Amir Khaleel was the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the Marine Diving Fair. In his speech noted was the issue of the global warming and its impact to the Maldives and expressed his supported for the Japanese campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25% by the year 2020. He also thanked the Marine Arts Centre for their hard work in creating awareness amongst the public about the protection of the underwater.
A quiz is carried in the Maldives stand daily making it popular by having more visitors attending to participate in the quiz. This year it is expected that a total of 50,000 would visit the fair. Together with Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, Villa hotels, Sun hotels, Bandos Island Resort & Spa, Diva Maldives, Conrad Maldives and Travel Agencies; Vista Company & Travel Services, Crown Tours, Intour Maldives and Intourist Maldives participated in the fair.
Though last year Maldives experienced a reduction in Japanese market, this year Japanese market is looking prosperous with a 6.0% increase in arrivals during February 2010. A total of 36,641 Japanese visited Maldives in the year 2009 with a market share of 5.6%.
Source: http://www.visitmaldives.com
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