– Dr Rohantha Athukorala

The Maldives Marketers Summit 2024 attracted some of the best brains in Marketing in the South Asian region at the beautiful capital of Maldives Male, to discuss innovative brand strategies and pick up the best practices in the region. The event was staged at The National University of Maldives.

The Chief guest at the event was the Principal Secretary to the President of Maldives Abdulla Nazin Ibrahim whilst the key note was delivered by Sri Lankan business personality Dr Rohantha Athukorala.

Key note speaker at Maldives Marketing Summit 2024 – Dr Rohantha Athukorala

Eleven speakers from around the world shared ideas ranging from AI, New research techniques, Gaming as a marketing strategy and Running a brand during an Economic collapse. Sri Lankan speaker Dr Rohantha Athukorala raised the red flag on the Maldives New Tourism Strategy that is taking traction where a new product range has been introduced called ‘ Guest Houses’ targeting budget tourists at one third of the costs. Data reveals that there is 809 Guest Houses across the Maldive Islands that has the capacity to fill 13,657 beds and accounting for almost 20% of the capacity. This segment has very little regulation for quality on on brand marketing which will sure hurt the distinctive positioning that Maldive Island occupy in the top end Global traveller said Athukorala.

The speaker went on to deep dive on the new strategy of the most successful Tourism Marketing brand globally and opinioned “ Whilst socially, the concept may be attractive as it provides a livelihood to many Maldivinans across different islands, a point to note is that they fall under the category of a Small Medium Enterprises( SME’s) and they lack the knowledge and experience on concepts like brand positioning, hygiene and sanitation and the use digital media that can dilute the crystal clear brand positioning that Maldives as a Tourism brand currently enjoy he said.

He went on to explain how currently, the top end luxury travelers are attracted by the 176 branded resorts that fetch over a 5 billion dollars to the country which is sixty percent of the dollar revenue the it generates. As per the latest data there are 43,279 beds that are prices at between $3000-15,000 dollars making it the most desired celebrity brand for Tourism. Be it Football icon Ronaldo and his wife Georgina, Prince William, Roger Federer, Beyoncé to name a few voiced Athukorala. Top brand properties like Conrad, Woldof Astoria, Hilton, Ritz Carlton stack up the supply chain with another twenty five super luxury properties that will be added to the room stock. Which means that unless some sharp marketing is done in a world economy that is in recession brand Maldives Tourism will be severely commented Athukorala who is a Former Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism and a award winning brand marketer who has served British multinationals like ReckittBenckiser/ Unilever.

A country can have two tourism brands but then, there must be clear demarcations and strong ruthless policy so that the overall destination brand imagery will not get impacted he cautioned. There are many global case studies of brands that have been destroyed and Policy makers must ensure that brand Tourism Maldives will not become a case study of a University for the wrong reason he said. ‘ Maldives cannot be testing new economic strategies given that Debt is at 115%, a depleted Two months of foreign reserves and budget deficit of 12%. There are thirty seven countries globally that are in the brink of financial collapse warned Dr Athukorala.