Expensive Romantic Getaways For Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is around the corner and most of the couples are planning great vaccination ahead of them. Love is in the air and most of the couples in love want to have a silent getaway with that special one.

Listed below are some of the expensive romantic getaways for this valentine's day, these ideas will definitely add in more color to your plans and will spice up your relationship.


Being with your loved one is a special feeling and expressing your love for him or her should be done in such a way that she or he will always remember the moment.

Read on and get inspired by these expensive romantic getaways for this valentine's day.

1.The cook Islands – The feeling of love is special. The best romantic getaways for this valentine's day is the Cook Islands. This romantic islands discovered by James Cook is a lovely getaway from the modern world to only be with that loved one. The place has hot and humid temperatures throughout the year.

2.Hawaii – This place is known for the beautiful parties and the most famous thing in Hawaii is the waterfalls. All throughout the year it is cool and some parts of the year it is warm. The best place to visit is during February where you have different parties all related to the day of love.

3.Maldives – Situated in the middle of the Indian ocean. The Maldives is the great place to express your feelings to your special one. The best thing in the Maldives is that only 200 islands are inhabited and the rest of them are not out of 2000 islands. On a visit to this best romantic getaways for this valentine's day, do not forget to see the white sea sands and the coral islands.

Choose wisely from these three expensive romantic getaways for this valentine's day and give your loved one a special experience this year.


Source:

Kuoni Launches its 'We Know What You're Thinking' Sale Campaign

Kuoni, the luxury tour operator, has launched its innovative 'We know what you're thinking' marketing campaign, injecting personality into the search by travellers for a break away from the UK's winter gloom.
Kuoni's luxury holidays offer premium service, destination insight and affordability as well as allowing customers to enjoy savings of up to 40%, plus an additional 5% discount online.

To convey this message in an engaging way, the tour operator has designed a campaign that resonates with customer sentiment and needs as they think about planning their time away from it all. Some of the messages include 'Re-charge your batteries without being charged the earth'; 'Mind, body and soul breaks that are good for your wallet, purse and credit card' and 'I want to broaden my mind not permanently shrink my bank balance'.

The messages reflect the fact that many people have less to spend in today's modern society and are seeking better value for money in the luxury market.
Kuoni has invested in media across the marketing mix to communicate to customers at various touch points including the company's retail stores, the Internet, press advertising, outdoor and radio.
A wide range of holidays are on offer, designed to suit a variety of needs: customers can relax and soak up sun on Maldives holidays; indulge in spa therapy in St Lucia, Thailand or Oman; sign up for adventure in Malaysia, India Peru or Marrakech; encounter game on safari holidays in Kenya; tour around Sri Lanka and much more.
The Kuoni retail stores, which are situated around the UK, are also getting into the sale spirit. Personal travel experts are wearing specially designed shirts are promoting the campaign while large plasma screens show short films of the holidays on offer. Creative window displays will also entice shoppers in-store to avoid the British weather.

To reflect the increasing use of mobile phones to research holidays, Kuoni has also included QR codes in their press advertising. iPhone users will be able to scan the code to download Kuoni's new, innovative and interactive iPhone app and then check out the latest sale offers.

For the latest luxury holiday offers, travellers can visit the Kuoni website.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board showcased the destination at 13th annual Unique Choice Road Show

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board participated for the first time at the 13th annual Unique Choice Road Show held in 6 cities of GCC countries namely Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Dammam/Al-Khober, Riyadh, Jeddah from 30th May till 3rd June 2009.

Unique Choice group is identified as one of the top wholesale tour operator in the Middle East region. These workshops are marked as one of the important events each year due to its success targeting tour operators/ travel agents in the GCC region. The main objectives of Maldives participation in the road show was to increase market share from the Middle East countries by providing the travel trade with the most updated tourism information on the Maldives and secure commitments for the future promotions of the Maldives among their clients. Furthermore, to ensure that as many travel agents and tour operators as possible have the tools they need to be able to effectively promote Maldives island resorts.

The workshops started in Abu Dhabi on the 30th May, with a networking session followed by a lunch at the Crowne Plaza in Abu Dhabi. More than 50 travel agents and tour operators were invited to the work shop, while majority of the visitor showed a keen interest in visiting the Maldives booth to collect information. Emphasis was placed on the warm welcome that GCC nationals and resident expatriates will receive when visiting the islands and the easy accessibility to the country in terms of flight connections and visa procedures.

The Maldives is currently the ultimate getaway for those who are attracted by private islands, stunning beaches and crystal clear waters. The Maldives provides the perfect backdrop for a relaxing, rejuvenating holiday, which is a welcome contrast to the frantic pace of life in the Arabian Gulf.

The workshop session was concluded by a raffle draw held among the visitors by giving away several free vacation prizes from the participating hotels/resorts. Among other participants include destination such as Malaysia, Singapore, Oman and a collection of resorts/hotels from these destinations.

Similar format was adopted for the event in Dubai on the same day, where more than 75 travel agents and tour operators were invited to the JW Marriot Hotel in Dubai which was concluded by a dinner.

Last year Maldives welcomed a total of 683,012 visitors while a total of 9,141 tourists represented the Middle East region. By end of May 2009 Maldives received 3,082 tourists from the region showing a growth of 2.5 per cent compared to the same period of 2008.

Source: visitmaldives.com

Bowermaster's Adventures -- Snorkeling through the Maldives

Swimming along the coral edge of what transplanted marine biologist Anke Hofmeister calls her "home reef" the line dividing the shallows and deep blue is exact. To our left in the brightly sunlit coral, hundreds of shiny reef fish dart and feed; in the dark blue, just to our right, which descends straight down a dramatic hundred foot wall, swim the Maldivian big guys - jackfish, tuna and red snapper, each over one hundred pounds. An occasional spotted eagle ray elegantly flaps its way past in the dark blue below the surface of a calm Indian Ocean.

During a mile-long swim paralleling the beach we spy an incredibly beautiful and vast variety of wrasses, clown, surgeon and parrot fish. A dusky moray eel peeks out of its coral hideaway. A solitary hawksbill turtle flippers past. And a square-headed porcupine fish attempts to hide itself deep inside a rock crevice. As Anke dives to tickle an anemone hugged tight to the coral, a nasty titan triggerfish nips at her; they can be aggressive little buggers and when they bite literally take a chunk of flesh. The shallow, sandy floor running to the beach is heavy with gray-beige coral, colorful clams and even a few handsome sea cucumbers (black with red dots).

The relative health of the coral is somewhat remarkable because recent history here hasn't been particularly kind to it. In 1998, thanks to shifting ocean patterns associated with El Niño, sea temperatures rose above 32 degrees C for more than two weeks badly "bleaching" the coral (the killing of the symbiotic algae that lives within the coral and gives it color). Between seventy and ninety percent of all the reefs surrounding the Maldives 26 atolls are estimated to have died as a result. Slowly they are trying to come back.

While that temperature rise was considered a fluke, today after our swim I ask Anke to guess at the water temps now. "Around 31 degrees C (88 degrees F)," she says, though she not guessing since she's worked and swum here nearly daily for the past four years. "For this time of year, that seems to be normal now. In two more months it will be colder, down to 27, 28 degrees."

In 1998 scientists were astonished that the water temperatures could rise so high, so fast. Now they are worried it may one day become the norm. With approximately 80 per cent of the 1,192 coral islets that make up the island nation just three feet or less above sea level, making it the world's lowest country, the temperature of the ocean is very important. If the temperatures stay high and the coral continues to suffer and die, there goes another barrier protecting these already fragile, at-risk islands.

While warming and rising seas and coral die-offs are everyday concerns throughout the Maldives, as Anke and I walk back down the beach another environmental worry is evident: Many of the beautiful white sand beaches are narrowing, on some islands quite dramatically. It's estimated that fifty percent of the inhabited islands and forty five percent of those with resorts only are suffering from some degree of coastal erosion.

Some of the beach loss is due to man. Continued development demands more sand for cement (though much of the sand used for building in the Maldives today comes from Sri Lanka or India). Increased wave action due to more boat traffic takes a toll. But a major blame is placed on the tsunami of 2004, which sucked massive amounts of sand off the beaches, and it never returned.

When you fly above the Maldives it's easy to see there is no one shape characterizing the outline of the exterior of the atolls or the hundreds of islands sheltered inside them. Strong tides and powerful currents shape each, there is no one pattern thus no single way to reduce or limit the erosion. On different islands different attempts have been made to save the beaches, including building of seawalls or jetties, dredging and pumping. In some cases it is working, in others not.

On one hand it's easy to think of these coral atolls and the islands they protect as tough and impervious, imagining that they've been here a long time and will be here for a longer time to come. But a short swim and a simple walk on a beautiful, hot, hot day quickly reminds just how fragile, how vulnerable they can be.

Source: gadling.com

Maldives targets mass market with affordable hotels

The Maldives could become the latest mass market holiday destination, reports Charles Starmer-Smith.

The government of the Indian Ocean archipelago this week revealed plans to build dozens of mid-range hotels and guesthouses in an attempt to arrest the downturn in tourism.

Mohamed Nasheed, the newly elected president of the Maldives, said he would allow construction of two- and three-star hotels and cheap guesthouses on islands – including some of the uninhabited ones – to make the country a more affordable holiday destination. He maintained that any construction would be sustainable and new properties would be approved only if the developers were willing to invest in infrastructure and public transport links on the islands.

Last year the Maldives attracted about 200,000 British holidaymakers, but the number of visitors has slowed markedly. In February, British visitor numbers fell by 24 per cent compared with the same month last year and many travel operators and hoteliers have already reduced their prices.

Meedhupparu, a four-star resort, last month made half of its employees redundant after revealing that in February it was less than a third full. British tour operators are now offering week-long packages in the Maldives for as little as £649. Even some of the most luxurious resorts have halved their rates. Elegant Resorts this week was offering seven nights’ half board at the five-star One&Only resort of Reethi Rah for £1,795 per person – a discount of £3,240 per couple.

It is hoped the developments will attract an extra 100,000 Britons, including backpackers and gap-year travellers.

“The average British person should be able to come to enjoy the Maldives and see the sun, the sea and the sand,” said Mr Nasheed.

He said the Maldives originally catered to a wider range of tourists, but over the past decade the main focus has been on high-end holidays, making the islands a byword for luxury beach breaks. As part of the drive to introduce lower room rates, Mr Nasheed said small guesthouse operators will pay cheaper rents than the larger hotel chains.

It has also been proposed that the country, which is Muslim, should in future be allowed to host weddings between foreigners and that there should be an increase in charter flights to the islands.

In a separate move, the government has promised to make the Maldives the world’s first carbon-neutral country by switching to the use of renewable energy within a decade.

The Maldives is one of the world’s lowest-lying countries – its 26 atolls, containing nearly 1,200 islands (of which 250 are inhabited), lie just 5ft above sea level. Scientists believe most of the islands could be submerged by the end of the century. In response, Mr Nasheed has announced plans to purchase land elsewhere for his countrymen to live on – with India, Sri Lanka and Australia among the countries he has approached.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Maldives is competing in the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” Campaign

The Maldives archipelago has been nominated for the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign. This campaign is a process in which seven natural wonders of the world are chosen by people through a global poll which will be declared in the year 2011.



The campaign is being organized by the Swiss based New7Wonders Foundation after their success in organizing the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. 261 qualified national and multinational nominees are now competing to make it to the top 77.

Please vote for Maldives by visiting www.visitmaldives.com or www.new7wonders.com. Voting continues from January 7th until July 7th 2009 to determine the top 77 in each of the seven competing categories. The New7Wonders Panel of Experts will select the 21 finalists from the top 77 nominees.

We would like to call all Maldivians, fans and well wishers of Maldives to join our effort to make Maldives as one of the Natural Wonders of the World.

Source: visitmaldives.com

Maldives showcased at World Travel Mart 2008

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and representatives from Maldives tourism industry participated in the World Travel Mart 2008 from 10 to 13th November 2008 at ExCel London. This is the biggest travel trade event held in the United Kingdom.

A total of 70 tourism related companies from Maldives participated in the fair of which 33 companies represented resorts and hotels in the Maldives. Also travel agencies selling resorts, hotels and live-aboards participated in this fair. The three day long fair attracted over 50,000 visitors. Visitors include press, media and travel trade. This year’s fair attracted 5500 exhibitors representing over 200 countries and regions.

This year, Maldives stand at WTM was re-designed to portray the dynamism of the tourism product developments in the destination Maldives.

UK is the major generating market for Maldives with 17.8% of the market share. Maldives welcomed 89,952 visitors from UK by the end of September 2008.

Source: www.visitmaldives.com

MTPB holds Road Shows in three countries in South East Asia

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board together with the Maldives tourism industry held road shows in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore on the 17th, 20th and 21st of October respectively.

The main objectives of these road shows are to diversify further into South East Asian market. This new approach of promoting the Maldives as a destination for South East Asian visitors will further enhance the existing business collaboration and pave way for new business ties. South East Asia is a promising market in consideration of easy access to Maldives and a growing affluent population. It is the first time that MTPB has organized a road show targeting South East Asian market.

The road shows were mainly targeted to the travel trade and media. Maldivian event in Kuala Lumpur was attended by over 50 participants, while Bangkok event welcomed over 130 participants and Singapore event was attended by over 70 participants. The attendees included travel agents, tour operators, airlines companies and the media. Presentation about the Maldives as tourist destination was given to the participants by Maldives Tourism Promotion Board. In addition, industry participants gave presentations about their products. During each of these events a raffle was held and winner won a holiday for two in Maldives with complements of Adaaran.

Last year Maldives welcomed a total of 675,889 visitors. Asian market represented 144,363 visitors which is 23.3% of the market share.

Source: www.visitmaldives.com

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board visits Singapore on Asian Road Show

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, together with the Maldives tourism industry, is conducting a road show in Asia. The show visited Kuala Lumpur on Friday, followed by Bangkok on Monday, and will today be in Singapore.

It is the first time that MTPB has organized a road show targeting the South East Asian market. The main objectives of these road shows are to diversify further into the South East Asian market and also try new ways of promoting the Maldives as a destination for visitors from this region.

The Maldives won the title of the World’s Most Romantic Destination at the World Travel Awards 2007.

Luxury resorts, award winning spa’s and some of the best snorkeling, fishing and scuba diving in the world, the Maldives offers a unique holiday experience to visitors.

Last year Maldives welcomed a total of 675,889 visitors. The Asian market represents 144,363 visitors a market share of 23.3%.

In Singapore, booth exhibitions and presentations will be set up at the Singapore Art Museum - The Glass Hall, to update industry guests on the latest development about this unique tropical holiday destination. Participating partners include the Adaaran Group, The Regent Maldives, and Dhoni Stella Private Yachts.

Source: www.asiatraveltips.com

Win a trip to an exotic retreat in the Maldives

On the remote South Nilandhe Atoll lies Angsana Velavaru, Maldives. This is a perfectly placed holiday resort, which blends contemporary design and marine biodiversity, with private beach villas and the acclaimed Angsana Spa.

So that you have the opportunity to visit, The Times is joining with Angsana Velavaru to give readers the chance to win a trip to the resort. The prize includes a seven-night stay for two people in a beachfront villa, including breakfast, and economy flights to Malé International Airport, which is a 40-minute journey by seaplane from Velavaru.

For your chance to win, just answer the following question here.

In what ocean is the Maldives?

Submit your answer here

Competition closes at midnight on Thursday, October 9.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Promoting tourism in South Asia

South Asian tourism has operated at sub-optimal levels for a long period of time. With the exception of the Maldives and more recently India, all other countries need to work harder towards achieving more conducive operating environments for the tourism industry. Accounting for only 1.1% of the global visitor arrivals, South Asia's recent growth levels indicate promise of the region's ability to move forward, harnessing the vast potential that exists.

Home to marvels such as Taj Mahal, Ajantha, Sigiriya, Timpu and Takshila, the heritage and cultures of the region dates back thousands of years and is talked about everywhere. It has been a hot spot for several of the seafaring nations looking for spices and riches for several centuries in the past. It then became the play ground of several colonial powers. It is now home to almost all of the world's religions.
Yet with some 400 million people remaining below the poverty line and 71 million people affected by violence or its threat, most of South Asia remains a conflict-ridden region in the world. Poverty, health, child and gender related issues are still pulling the region's image positioning down. While the resource-base for tourism is available in abundance, the constraints have been the uncertain political climates, infrastructure and access limitations.

Two significant breakthrough initiatives that has helped tourism growth in the region in the recent past is the relative liberalisation of the Indian aviation industry and the visa on arrival travel initiatives implemented by Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives for SAARC visitors. The phenomenon of economic prosperity for the region vis-à-vis 'Chindia' is another motivator creating hope for the future.

In order to fast forward the movement of tourist visitors to and within the SAARC region the following initiatives are recommended for implementation:

• Further liberalise air access between countries of SAARC, facilitating any SAARC airline to operate to other SAARC countries without restriction
• Facilitate ocean and other water based, road and highway and railway transportation of people of the SAARC (to serve tourism as well) through the liberal operation of fast ferry services, shipping services and cruising operations and exploring road and rail transport options
• Undertake joint programmes at both regional and bi-lateral levels to jointly develop infrastructure and institutions needed for setting in place tourism operations and investments driven in the main by the private sector or as public/private partnership ventures
• Commence joint initiatives at both governmental and private sector operator levels to enhance the current Buddhist circuit, the Ramayana Trail and other regional and bilateral thematic tour circuits
• Undertake the publication of an annual South Asian Tourism Events Directory (to be published an year in advance to enable tour sales for the events)
• Commence a twinning of cities programme within the SAARC region Establish a SARRC joint Climate Change Response using Sri Lanka's pioneering 'Tourism Earth Lung' initiative as the platform.

In 2007, the South Asian region had only less than 1.1% (9.7 million) of the total visitors from around the world of 898 million, coming over to the region. In comparison, Europe had 53.5% of the global arrivals, with the Asian region including East and Southeast Asia having 19.3%. Volume of arrivals to the Asia-Pacific region also more than doubled from 2000 to 2007 from 85 million to 198 million. Within this growth scenario regrettably, most of South Asia only saw marginal growth with the exceptions of some significant growth from India and the Maldives.

We have for several decades now, promoted regional tourism. As far back as the early 1980's the World Tourism Organisation (now UN WTO) set up a secretariat for South Asian Tourism Promotion based in Colombo and attempted to promote the region. This initiative failed as there was inadequate support and interest from the individual nation's state tourism organisations for its sustenance.

In the 1990's The SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) began a Nepal based initiative to promote tourism to the region. A special Tourism Committee was formed and several rounds of meetings were held. A promotional tagline of 'Magic that is South Asia' was coined and talk of a regional tourism year was initiated. It was thought that the ice would melt if private sector business and tourism stakeholders took the lead in taking regional tourism initiatives forward. Several South Asian Tourism business and trade marts have been held since then.

On the formal inter-governmental sphere, tourism occupies an important position and in the official website of the SAARC Secretariat. The First Meeting of the Working Group on Tourism was held in Colombo on 16 to 17 August 2004. In addition to the SAARC Member States and representatives of the Secretariat, representatives of the SCCI Tourism Council and the ASEAN Secretariat also attended the Meeting.

Besides reviewing the implementation of programme of activities relevant to its mandate, the Working Group made a number of recommendations for promotion of tourism in the SAARC region e.g. printing of a SAARC Travel Guide, production of a documentary movie on tourism in SAARC, promotion of sustainable development of Eco-Tourism, Cultural Tourism and Nature Tourism, collaboration in HRD in tourism sector by having programmes for exchange of teachers, students, teaching modules and materials, Promoting Cooperation in the field of tourism with other relevant regional and international tourism organizations. It also proposed a number of activities to celebrate the South Asia Tourism Year – 2005 in a befitting manner".

If one were to compare, the progress made on the ground and by other regional tourism initiatives that began its thrusts much later than the SAARC region, such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Pacific Tourism Commission, European Union (EU) Tourism and most recently The Mekong Tourism Initiative, progress made must be classified at best as wanting.

Within the backdrop of the frustration of the SAARC region's under performance, in 1997, a separate initiative was undertaken led by several governments of the South Asian region titled the South Asian Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) consisting of Bangladesh, Bhutan, 13 of the North, East and Northeast States of India and Nepal. The Asian. Development Bank (ADB) supported the initiative under the programme 'South Asian Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC), where a tourism component exists. This is an ongoing programme within the South Asian development framework of the Bank.

The dichotomy that is South Asia
South Asia can indeed be described as a dichotomy. While it has not lived up to expectations as a regional grouping, at the individual country level, tourism development in the SAARC region presents several unique models, containing some successful best practices.

Bhutan, has presented to the world a model of tourism development where its operations are based on the model of a kinked demand curve in creating premium value for the destination. Upon limiting access to tourists to Bhutan to a few tens of thousands, a premium charge is made for the visit, placing the per capita yield from a tourist at a high level. A business model aimed at conserving Bhutan's heritage, cultural and natural resources, it is also in keeping with the unique development indicator of 'Gross National Happiness' this 'Thunder Dragon' nation has presented to the world, as against the key conventional development measurement of 'Gross National Product'.

Maldives, known today as one of the most successful island destinations in the world, works on a business model of establishing strong partnerships with foreign investors and tour operators. Beginning with investments from Sri Lankan conglomerates in the early 1980's (still accounting for about 20% of all hotel rooms), Maldives Tourism, offering the 'sunny side of life' as its positioning platform, is driven in the main by some of the best international and regional brand names in the island tourism business.

Nepal, on the other hand is an example of pioneering a brand of unique community based tourism initiative. With its early model of the Annapurna Tourism Development Project and the Bhakthipur Conservation Project of the 1980's, Nepal introduced a good tourism operational model to the world with its unique nature and heritage conservation, community benefit and sustainable funding features. Sri Lanka, in addressing the challenge of global warming and climate change faced by all nations of the world, has ventured to extend its conventional positioning as a tourist destination of a treasured island with a warm people and a nature, culture, adventure offering to taking advantage of its extensive green cover to strive to be a 'Tourism Earth Lung' working towards being a carbon neutral destination by year 2018.

In my mind, South Asian Tourism could not take off in the past, as a result of three problems. They are:

1. Lack of a pragmatic approach of our political and bureaucratic leadership towards identifying and exploiting socio-political and economic opportunities and the prevalence of an environment of mistrust between India and Pakistan in the past,

2. Self-imposed limitation of access to and within the region as a result of an introvert attitude and

3. Resultant political instability, absence of rapid economic growth and ways of distributing even the growth achieved to minimise poverty.

Outlook for the future
India presents the region's largest economy as well as the largest tourism operation. India has also been the principal trendsetter in determining the region's future, whether it was to be negative or positive. With her economy growing at 9.2% in 2007 and 9.6% in 2006, it is cited as one of the most promising prospects of the world for the future. Growth is supported by market reforms, huge inflows of FDI, rising foreign exchange reserves, both an IT and real estate boom, and a flourishing capital market. India reduced her poverty levels by 10% and achieved a growth in the service sector of more than 11% and the sector forms about 53% of the economy.

The concept of 'Chindia', where the growth dynamics of both China and India will complement as Asia's newest prospects for economic super power status, augers well in positioning India away from the mindset of a poverty stricken country to that of a modern growth economy with a proud heritage and culture.

As a result, India's tourism industry is experiencing a strong period of growth, driven by the burgeoning Indian middle class (for domestic and outbound travel) and growth in high spending foreign tourists. The tourism industry in India is substantial and vibrant, and the country is fast becoming a major global destination and an outbound visitor generating market. India's travel and tourism industry is one of the most profitable industries in the country, and also credited with contributing a substantial amount of foreign exchange. This is illustrated by the fact that during 2006, four million tourists visited India and spent US $8.9 billion.

Several reasons are cited for the growth and prosperity of India's travel and tourism industry. Economic growth has added millions annually to the ranks of India's middle class, a group that is driving domestic tourism growth. Disposable income in India has grown by 10.11% annually from 2001-2006, and much of that is being spent on travel.

Thanks in part to its vibrant IT and outsourcing industry a growing number of business trips are made by foreigners to India, who will often add a weekend break or longer holiday to their trip. Foreign tourists spend more in India than almost any other country worldwide. Tourist arrivals are projected to increase by over 22% per year through till 2010, with a 33% increase in foreign exchange earnings recorded in 2004.
The tourism authorities at the centre and at state levels have also played an important role in the development of the industry, with promotional campaigns such as the "Incredible India" campaign, which promoted India's culture and tourist attractions in a fresh and memorable way. The campaign helped create a never before positioned image of India in the minds of consumers all over the world, and has directly led to an increase in the interest among tourists.

The tourism industry has also helped growth in other sectors as diverse as horticulture, handicrafts, agriculture, construction and even poultry. Recent increased growth in tourism in India has created jobs in a variety of related sectors. The numbers tell the story: almost 20 million people are now working in India's tourism industry.

Recent trends of terrorism, food security, poverty still at undesirable levels, increasing fuel costs and the still looming security issues will continue to pose challenges to unleashing the full potential of India as well as the region. The silver-lining for tourism though is an evident breakthrough in thinking and a strong desire to breakthrough the shackles of the past of protectionism and introvert attitudes of individual nations and the collective psyche of the leadership of the region.

Removing barriers for entry
While it is critical that air, sea and road access is expanded and enhanced if regional tourism development is to take off, it is equally critical to ensure that most artificial barriers in terms of visa facilitation is made as easy as possible for visitors to the region and for each of the countries in the SAARC alliance.

Currently, except for the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal for the rest of the countries of SAARC, visa formalities are cumbersome. If one is to analyse the measurers taken in the ASEAN region almost all countries within the region allow visa free or visa upon entry facilitation for intra-regional travel. The ASEAN grouping goes one step further to offer an ASEAN Air Pass, where travelling to one ASEAN country qualifies a traveller to visit other countries at a concessionary airfare.

There is also in effect an ASEAN Hotel Pass (Hip-Hop Pass) with similar incentives. In the EU most countries of the union may be visited with a common EU Visa, obtained from one of the member countries. ASEAN is aiming to have a common ASEAN visa by year 2009. The South Asian region is far from achieving such levels of freeing formalities between countries of SAARC and for visitors to the region.

Promoting South Asian Tourism is not about promotion
It must also be stated that intra-regional tourism promotion to be a precursor to promoting the region for international visitors, as taking that route, will strengthen the capacity within the region to develop better structures and institutions to correct some of the problems that are endemic in the body polity of the region.

Following are a series of process-based actions that are proposed to achieve the objective stated above:

• Further liberalise air access between countries of SAARC, facilitating any SAARC airline to operate to other SAARC countries without restriction
• Facilitate ocean and other water based, road and highway and railway transportation of people of the SAARC (to serve tourism as well) through the liberal operation of fast ferry services, shipping services and cruising operations and exploring road and rail transport options
• Undertake joint programmes at both regional and bi-lateral levels to jointly develop infrastructure and institutions needed for setting in place tourism operations and investments driven in the main by the private sector or as public/private partnership ventures
• Commence joint initiatives at both governmental and private sector operator levels to enhance the current Buddhist circuit, the Ramayana Trail and other regional and bilateral thematic tour circuits
• Undertake the publication of an annual South Asian Tourism Events Directory (to be published an year in advance to enable tour sales for the events)
• Commence a twinning of cities programme within the SAARC region Establish a SARRC joint Climate Change Response using Sri Lanka's pioneering 'Tourism Earth Lung' initiative as the platform
  Conclusion

Tourism promotion is compared to the likes of dream selling. To sell dreams of people, the dreams sold must be beautiful and believable. In promoting and branding South Asia as a tourist destination area, the challenge faced by the marketer is to ensure hat the three key characteristics of brand identity are assured. They are quality, consistency and integrity. To assure that these characteristics are maintained, an intense and continuous effort need be made both at the destination and at the regional levels.
(Excerpts from a presentation made at the recent South Asia Economic Summit in Colombo.)

Source: www.sundaytimes.lk

Maldives Promoted Via United Kingdom Radio Stations

Male’, 02 September 2008; Maldives has initiated a radio promotional campaign on four major radio stations in the United Kingdom. The main objective of this campaign is to promote and portray the Maldives as an affordable luxury destination. The promotion will be aired from Maldives as a breakfast show in UK.



The partnering resorts and radio station broadcasting from those resorts are as follows.

Broadcasting date: 1 – 5^th September 2008

Resort	Station / Region	Broadcast time in UK
Royal Island Resort & Spa	Hallam FM (Sheffield)	6 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Kurumba Maldives	Key 103 (Manchester)	6 a.m. – 10 a.m.

Broadcasting date: 8 – 12^th September 2008

Resort	Station / Region	Broadcast time in UK
Bandos Island Resort & Spa	Invicta FM (Kent)	6 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Coco Palm Dhunikolhu	Metro FM (Newcastle)	5 a.m. – 10 a.m.

This campaign is expected to reach to an audience of over 1.3 million people. The listeners to each of the stations have an opportunity to win a holiday for a couple in Maldives by participating in a quiz. This radio campaign is supplemented with a parallel online campaign on the radio stations website. The live show from Maldives can be listened by visiting to their website in the above mentioned times.
www.metroradio.co.uk,www.key103.co.uk, www.hallamfm.co.uk, www.invictafm.co.uk

Maldives welcomed 69,715 visitors from UK during the first half of this year. UK emerged as the largest generating market for the Maldives in 2007 with 125,158 visitors and a market share of 18.5 percent.

Source: MTPB

Universal Resorts keen to tap Indian outbound market

Maldives-based Universal Resorts held a roadshow in Bangalore recently to promote its resorts in the Indian market. The aim of such road shows, according to Shoumo Mukherjee, General Manager - Sales & Marketing, Universal Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., is to improve their distribution network in India. The company is planning a similar promotional activity in Delhi soon. It is also keen to promote its small 20-cabin cruise liner for island-hopping tours in Maldives.

"Currently Europe is our largest market accounting for 80 per cent of our business. However, we are keen to get more Indians to Maldives and chose Bangalore for the road show as there is a direct flight from Bangalore to Maldives. We want to promote the resorts to the corporates in Bangalore and for this we want to connect with the various implant agents who take care of the travel requirements of these corporates, especially incentive packages," informed Mukherjee.

Of the 11,000 tourists travelling to Maldives annually with an average stay of 11 nights, 7,000 are Indians. The company has resorts that offer value for money with tariff as low as USD 80 and luxury resorts with a minimum tariff of USD 600. According to Mukherjee, one of the key USPs of their resorts is that each one has a private beach accessible only to the guests. The resorts also offer a range of activities like snorkelling, fishing, sunset cruise, sailing, diving, island hopping and numerous water sports. The Group has seven properties in Maldives, one in Seychelles and one in Sri Lanka targeting couples and families.

Source:

Maldives Participates in Top Resa 2007

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) and representatives from tourism related companies in Maldives participated in Top Resa Travel Fair 2007. Top Resa which is held in Deauville from 26 to 28 September is the annual key travel trade fair in France. Top Resa brings together approximately 16,500 representatives of the travel and trade during the show.

Ten tourism related companies from the Maldives participated in the fair together with MTPB. The three day long fair attracted more than 16,000 people. This includes travel trade and press & media visitors

During the fair General information on destination Maldives and specific product information by the co – exhibitors were disseminated. The fair also facilitated networking among members of Maldivian delegations and French operators. In addition MTPB officials gave media interviews on new product developments.

France is the fourth largest generating market for Maldives. During the first half of 2007 Maldives welcomed 28,800 French visitors. This is an increase of 1.7% compared to the same period last year. A total of 43,627 visitors from France visited Maldives last year.

Source: MTPB

Maldives Promoted Via Hong-Kong Based Network

Maldives has been promoted via Phoenix Satellite Television of Hong-Kong.

A 15 second television advertisement of Maldives was aired daily during June. The advertisement was subtitled in Chinese. The main objective of this campaign is to promote Maldives in the Chinese market. Phoenix channel reaches over 42 million households, including more than 140 million viewers in mainland China.

China accounts for 4.4 percent market share of arrivals to Maldives. Maldives welcomed 26,396 visitors from China in 2006.

Source: MTPB