Sri Lanka’s neighbour and tourism competitor, the Maldives Islands - which promotes the one-island, one-resort concept - this week unveiled a new tourism slogan and logo after a year-long search.
The slogan, “Maldives – Always Natural” replaces the 11-year old ‘Sunny Side of Life’ and was launched by the state-owned Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC).
It came after a year-long consultation and design process, involving industry and government. The slogan is accompanied by a logo highlighting the country’s unique natural characteristics, according to an MMPRC statement.
“The slogan and logo are designed to underscore the outstanding natural beauty of the Maldives, which tourists from all segments of the market consistently rate as one of their main reasons for visiting the country,” said MMPRC Chairperson Thoyyib Mohamed.
The slogan and logo’s environmental theme is also designed to support the Maldives’ fishing industry: sustainable, pole and line caught tuna is the country’s second biggest export, after tourism.
“The previous slogan was over 11 years old and we believe the new slogan and logo better represents the Maldives of today, as well as tomorrow,” said Simon Hawkins, Managing Director of the MMPRC.
Trave agents and industry officials welcomed the new slogan saying the earlier one was sometimes an issue because ‘how do you promote the sunny side (only) when it also rains in the Maldives’?
Sri Lanka also recently changed its tourism slogan to ‘Refreshingly Sri Lanka – Wonder of Asia’ from ‘Sri Lanka – Land like no other’.
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