Maldives has welcomed the very first tourist visitor of 2022 with a special welcoming ceremony held at Velana International Airport (VIA) on Saturday morning, 01st January.
Meanwhile, Visit Maldives had corroborated that Ms. Georgina Canning, who was traveling to Maldives via Gulf Air (Flight number: GF144) around 06:10hrs on Saturday morning was greeted by senior officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) along with senior members of Maldives Immigration and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).
Ms. Canning was accompanied on her trip by her partner while this marks her second visit to the island nation.
The first visitor to the Maldives in 2022 received a 5-night holiday with a full-board meal plan for 2 person at the Adaaran Prestige Vadoo while other gifts were conferred to Ms. Canning from MMPRC, Ministry of Tourism, Maldives Immigration as well as MACL.
At the ceremony, the Chief Executive and Managing Director of MMPRC Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed expressed his delight with the swift recovery of the Maldivian tourism industry in 2021 following the heavy setbacks in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our nation’s success, despite the difficulties faced by the global pandemic, stands testament to our optimism and strength of solidarity – these are fundamental elements of the continued success of our tourism industry. With that optimism, we warmly welcome our first visitor for this year. And with that strength of solidarity, we take another step into the golden jubilee year of Maldivian tourism,” said Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed.
Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism Dr. Abdulla Mausoom while speaking at the ceremony remarked on the success of the Maldivian tourism industry.
He said, “in spite of the global challenges, the year 2021 has been a very successful year for Maldives tourism. Tourist bed capacity increased by 9.4% and the bed nights exceeded 11 million breaking the previous record of 10.7 nights. Furthermore, Maldives won the World’s Leading Destination Award by World Travel Awards for the [second] time consecutively. I appreciate the continuous engagement, contributions and support of all the tourism industry stakeholders, related authorities and agencies, the hardworking staff of the tourism sector, the lovely people of Maldives and the tourists.”
Moreover, Mr. Ibrahim Thoha the acting in-charge of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) had stated that Maldives achieved the traveler target of attracting 1.3 million tourists to the country before the end of 2021.
Additionally, he also confirmed that Velana International Airport had been awarded with the ACI Health Accreditation Certificate for its high safety standards, making VIA the second airport from Asia Pacific to be awarded with the certificate.