The Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), also known as Visit Maldives, has launched a social media marketing campaign on Weibo and WeChat for the Chinese market from March to May 2023. This campaign aims to inspire Chinese travelers to choose the Maldives as their preferred destination after reopening Chinese borders for leisure travel. Social media platforms are crucial to the Chinese market, making this an effective campaign, especially after the reopening of borders.

The campaign consists of 45 original posts and 12 original articles on the Visit Maldives accounts for Weibo and WeChat, promoting the products, experiences, and segments of the Maldives. Additionally, a campaign will be conducted to give away a free holiday to the Maldives to lucky winners, estimated to reach 1.4 million users.

WeChat and Weibo are the largest and second-largest social media platforms in China, with 1.17 billion monthly active users and 530 million monthly active users, respectively. They dominate the social media landscape in China. The first Chinese flight to the Maldives was a trending topic on Weibo, which created an opportunity to leverage the trend of traveling to the Maldives. MMPRC has conducted 17 similar WeChat and Weibo campaigns targeted at the Chinese market in the past with great success.

The Chinese market has consistently topped the arrival charts to the Maldives before the Covid-19 pandemic, with 284,029 arrivals (16.7%) in 2019. However, Chinese borders were closed for international leisure travel for about three years due to the pandemic, causing a significant decline in the arrival figures. Nevertheless, China has risen to the 06th top source market spot, with 30,353 arrivals (4.4% market share) as of 29th April 2023, since the first direct flight from China on 18th January 2023.

Marketing activities planned for 2023 include e-learning campaigns, outdoor campaigns, joint-promotion campaigns, familiarisation trips, social media campaigns, and participating in fairs such as ITB China. Overall, this social media marketing campaign is expected to significantly boost Visit Maldives’ efforts to attract more Chinese travelers to their destination.