Inner Maldives Holidays, a leading and multiple international award winning travel company in the Maldives, launches special promotional rates and offers for summer 2011. The special offers are designed specifically to attract more tourists to the destination during the period, which is the industry’s traditional low season.

Maldives has been attracting tourists from various new markets: the Asian & Middle Eastern markets appear to be on the rise with statistics revealing 14% growth from Middle East in the first two months of the year, and a 40% increase from Asian markets with China as the main dominator.

Inner Maldives Holidays, promises to open doors with a variety of options ranging from Early Bird discounts, Honeymoon deals and Free Nights (Stay 3 nights + 1 Free, Stay 4 nights + 1 Free, Stay 6 nights + 1 Free, Stay 12 nights and get 2 nights free). Meal Plan upgrades, complimentary Transfers, free Excursions, Anniversary offers and many more surprises are also available. Inner Maldives Holidays also provides bundled packages, tours and has provided an open opportunity for interested parties to submit familiarisation trip proposals.

The company’s Chairman Mohamed Firaq has emphasized that this summer would bring new mid-market properties into the Maldives and the company is geared in bringing tourism to Laamu, an atoll with many exciting projects in the pipeline. The idea is to pave the way for Maldives in becoming more affordable, providing value-for-money products that will benefit the greater community.

Inner Maldives Holidays is one of the most celebrated travel companies in the Maldives. The organisation has won World Travel Awards for “Indian Ocean’s Leading Travel Agency” in 2007 and 2009. Inner Maldives Holidays was the very first travel agency in the Maldives to receive a World Travel Award and the only company to win it twice. The company has been featured in the New York Times as “one of the nation’s biggest tour companies” (04/01/2005) and is also highly recommended by Lonely Planet.

Having direct contracts and allotments with over 80+ properties in the Maldives, and given its strength in bulk purchasing, the company is able to provide rare opportunities and incentives to push numbers especially from new emerging markets.

Inner Maldives Holidays will be represented at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai and INDABA in South Africa in May 2011.

Inner Maldives Holidays
Abdulla Ghiyas
9603006886
info@innermaldives.com
www.innermaldives.com

The ash cloud spread across the Europe due to Iceland’s volcanic eruption is preventing tourist arrivals and departure from the Maldives, as several flights were canceled within the last three days, government authorities have reported.

Airports Company said 16 scheduled flights, including flights of British Airways, Monaca, Condo, Air Berlin, Meridiana and Sri Lankan Airlines have been canceled from last Saturday to Tuesday.

“Four flights have been canceled today as of now,” an official of Airports Company said.

Tourism Ministry, Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB), along with other parties involved in tourism industry held a meeting yesterday, to negotiate about the issues being faced by the stranded tourists.

“We agreed to initiate a hot-line and a communication channel. We will be providing the details to the resorts tomorrow and will be collecting the information about the stranded tourists,” Tourism Minister Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad said, speaking to Haveeru yesterday.

“We will be able to collect all the information about the canceled flights and charter flights, when we establish this hot-line with Airports Company.”

He further noted the tourists and tour operators would not get the refund.

Officials of the airlines noted they could provide the opportunity for stranded tourists to visit other destinations, and added that resorts, tourist hotels and safaris should provide special rates to the tourists who are unable to leave the country, Minister Sawad added.

Tourism Ministry said around 1000 tourists from each tour operator are unable to leave the country.

MTPB stressed that the number of tourist arrivals would be much lower, compared to the projected number.

“We estimated a 25 percent increase this month [compared to last April]. So we are now estimating an 18 percent increase, as around 5000 seats would be canceled,” Deputy Director of the board, Mohamed Niyaz said.

While 57,186 tourists visited Maldives in April 2009, Tourism Ministry projected 71,482 tourists to visit Maldives this April.

Around 30 European countries shut down their airspace six days ago, due to the ash cloud spread across the region due to Iceland’s volcanic eruption that occurred last Thursday.

While France allowed a gradual resumption of flights, European Union said some airlines would be allowed to resume its flights Tuesday and the operation of all airlines would be restored within this week.

Source: Haveeru News Service www.haveeru.com.mv