I am back in Male’ after a successful ITB. Some of my colleagues said ITB was rather slow this year but for me it was a busy few days with pre arranged meetings and industry networking.

Though everyone seemed skeptic and mentioned the “economic crisis” more than twice in their conversations, most market players were confident that travel industry will do just fine. Let’s hope so too as we will all loose jobs if it goes otherwise.

Maldives as a destination generally received positive feedback and seems crisis resistance for certain extent. Based on the feedback, it looks like most upmarket resorts will probably see steady occupancy over the next months but will experience slow growth during the months May to September. This downturn may not be so evident as those months are always considered Low Season hence low demand. Maldives however will see fierce competition from destinations such as Seychelles, Cuba, Egypt (to name a few), where extensive and reasonable offers are shaking source markets.

The only thing one can do now is to be creative in marketing and apply strategies to secure value based advance bookings. We all know (and knew) this year is going to be tough, so let’s not forecast too much growth. Even in the worst scenario, those who market creatively and spend their dollar cleverly will see the results of 2006 which is still “good”, if you refer back to your books.

Again, in these difficult times, those who market more will score more.