Maldives Tourism Promotion Board together with the embassy of Maldives in Japan organized road shows in three major cities in Japan. The road shows were held in Nagoya, on 27th November, in Osaka on 28th November and in Tokyo on 29th November 2007. The road shows were attended by more than 200 Japanese travel trade, media and representatives from Maldives tourism industry. The road show in Tokyo was done in association with Sri Lankan Airlines. The Executive Director of MTPB Dr. Abdulla Mausoom headed the Maldives delegation.
The road shows in Japan were held at the following hotels:
1. Nagoya – The Grand Court Hotel Nagoya
2. Osaka – The Ritz Carlton Hotel
3. Tokyo – The Hilton Tokyo Hotel
The Nagoya road show was attended by 50 participants, the Osaka road show was attended by 70 and the Tokyo road show was attended by 90 participants. The purpose of the road shows was to disseminate information on the developments of Maldives tourism industry to the Japanese travel, trade and media. It also enabled the Japanese tour operators and travel agents to gather specific information on the wonderful tourism product that Maldives has to offer. The winner o lucky draw held during Tokyo road show received a holiday for two in Maldives. It holiday was sponsored by Platinum Capital Holdings Vilamendhoo Island Resort and air ticket was sponsored by Sri Lankan Airlines.
Japanese is the leading destination from Asia region to the Maldives. Maldives welcomed 34,057 Japanese visitors by the end of October 2007. Last year 39,528… number of Japanese visitors visited Maldives from Japan.