Malé, Maldives — The Maldives Immigration has introduced the World’s first tier-based travel loyalty programme titled ‘Maldives Border Miles’ on the occasion of ‘World’s Tourism Day’ on September 27.
There are three tiers featured in the Maldives Border Miles program, which are, ‘Aida’ (bronze), ‘Antara’ (silver) and ‘Abaarana’ (gold), each providing a distinctive variety of rewards, services or benefits to the reciever. These tiers will also increase in value according to progress.
Tourists will be earning points based on the duration of tourist stay and the number of times they visit the country. Tourists also have the opportunity to earn additional points by visiting the country during special occasions. However, this will only be effective starting from December.
The Maldives Border Miles is a program developed with the help of Ministry of Tourism, Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), to promote tourism within the island nation.
“The Maldives Border Miles launched today is a programme which will increase the popularity of Maldives as a tourist destination and provide a path for more marketing and advertising opportunities. In addition, I think that this will further enhance the popularity gained in the key markets of Maldives tourism,” the new Tourism Minister, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom stated on the day the program was inaugurated.
Along with several other countries, Maldives had closed its air and sea borders to tourist arrivals on March 27 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the international travel restriction had left Maldives in an extremely vulnerable state as the country has a heavily tourism reliant economy.
Although Maldives reopened its borders on July 15, a significant reduction in the number of tourist arrivals was noted compared to pre-Covid figures. The country welcomed only 13,516 tourists between July 15 and September 15, according to Maldives Immigration.
