Maldives welcomes first visitor of 2021, launches border miles

For the first time in the world, ‘Maldives Border Miles’ has officially been launched.

During a special ceremony held at Velana International Airport (VIA), the country welcomed the first tourist of the new year 2021, on Friday.

The tourism promotion program was initiated by the Maldives Immigration and developed with joint stakeholders, it was introduced by the Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom back in September.

Under the loyalty program, visitors will have the opportunity to earn points each time they cross the border with added points for special occasions. Rules of the loyalty program also note that partners and customers are both eligible to receive points.

Visitors enrolled in the program will proceed up three tiers; starting from bronze, ‘Aida’, silver, ‘Antara’ and gold, ‘Abaarana’, they will be entitled to exclusive benefits.

‘Maldives Border Miles’ will grant benefits to visitors at resorts, alongside exclusive services.

The program is being carried out by the Ministry of Tourism, jointly by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

Maldives celebrated a groundbreaking 1.7 million tourist arrivals within 2019 upon which the government set a goal to break the record with two million tourist arrivals during the ongoing year, which was soiled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Maldives tourism, which was affected by the pandemic even before the first few cases surfaced on March 7, was at a complete standstill for nearly four months since borders were closed on March 27. The country’s borders were reopened on July 15 and since then, over 100,000 tourist arrivals have been recorded.

The loyalty program is expected to open multiple doors to the industry, take the country’s tourism to new heights and promote the archipelago nation among zealous travelers.