Maldives

Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corp, the national tourism body of the Indian Ocean island nation, is looking to hire a PR firm in the UK to entice travelers, according to its RFP.

MMPRC, which uses the slogan, "the sunny side of life" in its current promotional push, wants to make Maldives "the most preferred island destination of the world," while achieving its mission for local tourism to promote long-term economic, social and cultural benefits to the country.

Tourism is the driving economic force of Maldives. The number of international arrivals has soared from 42K in 1980 to more than 1.2M in 2015. Twenty-three resorts are slated to open this year, including Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, which will be the first undersea hotel.

The UK, according to the tourism office, is one of its most valuable inbound markets. The number of visitors from the UK was up 17.5 percent in March and 12.2 percent to 33K during the first-quarter. That quarterly growth lagged the 17 percent rise in total visitors to 420K.

The selected PR firm will be required to pitch reporters, develop social platforms, arrange fam trips for travel media/bloggers, prepare competitive activity reports, monitor the media, attend trade exhibitions/fairs, organize road shows/presentations, liaise with airlines/tour operators and establish a dedicated phone line for PR/trade travel inquiries.

May 2 is the deadline to submit bids.They go to [email protected] and copied to [email protected] and [email protected].

The Government of Maldives has launched a crackdown against political, media and judicial opponents. 

Amnesty International and the US this month called for justice for a journalist/blogger who was murdered a year ago.

In February, Maldives hired Ballard Partners, which has close ties to Donald Trump, to a $600K one-year effort to build political support in the US.