The Maldives is tapping into the massive fan bases of two popular sporting giants in a new effort to spur more tourist interest in one of the world’s most sought-after destinations.
Last month, the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) signed sponsorship agreements with the UK’s Liverpool Football Club (LFC) and India’s Mumbai Indians cricket team to promote the country’s tourist attractions and increase footfall from the UK, India, and around the world.
“This is not sports tourism; we are not attracting teams to play in the Maldives. What we hope to achieve is attracting thousands of fans of these two clubs to visit the Maldives,” said MMPRC chairman Abdulla Ghiyas. The two sports clubs represent millions of fans across the world, he added.
Ghiyas told TTG Asia that the LFC deal is a 3.5-year partnership starting in August, coinciding with the next British football season. He explained that Liverpool positions itself as a premium brand, making this a collaboration between two premium brands – the Maldives and Liverpool.
With the partnership, the Maldives aims to increase its awareness and visibility through the club’s growing social media platforms, which have more than 200 million global followers. Last season alone, Liverpool registered nearly 12 billion views and 1.5 billion fan engagements, the highest of any English league club. Liverpool is also the most-watched team globally in the league, with a cumulative audience of 471 million last season, a trend that has continued into the current season.
While the Mumbai Indians deal targets just the Indian Premier League, the Liverpool deal is different.
“Every (Liverpool) home-and-away match, we would have access to the LEDs (giant billboards) plus all their material, their website, social outlets,” Ghiyas explained, noting that this is the first time in over 50 years of tourism that they have undertaken such an initiative, similar to their previous campaigns with the BBC and CNN.
MMPRC will also promote the two deals with Liverpool FC and Mumbai Indians at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, from April 28 to May 1, as well as at other international trade shows this year. Outdoor advertising for the LFC deal will soon roll out in the UK, with billboards in key locations such as the London Underground and airports.
The Maldives expects to attract a few hundred thousand tourists this year through the LFC engagement, generating over US$200 million in revenue. “We are not merely chasing arrival targets; we want to keep yields high, and Liverpool’s premium clientele can help us achieve this,” stated Ghiyas.
The announcement of the LFC-MMPRC deal reached 80 million people, and to celebrate the launch of the partnership, fans will have the chance to win a five-night trip to the Maldives, including flights and accommodation, through a MyLFC competition.
With a record two million tourist arrivals last year and the World Travel Awards (WTA) World’s Leading Destination title for the fifth consecutive year in 2024, the Maldives is targeting 2.2 million arrivals this year, along with a goal of US$5 billion in tourism receipts.
Cricket, the second most-watched sport in the world, has an audience with high disposable income, making the partnership with the Mumbai Indians a strategic move to elevate the Maldives’ brand among Indian and international travellers. The Maldives aims to attract 200,000 Indian tourists this year by boosting brand awareness and generating excitement across various Indian cities.
Private sector involvement is also key. For example, Heritance Aarah Maldives led the way in sports tourism by sponsoring Bologna FC in the UEFA Champions League last October, combining luxury travel with global sports before anyone else in the Maldives, according to Suresh Dissanayake, assistant vice president of sales and marketing at Adaaran Group, which owns Heritance Aarah.
“LFC and Mumbai Indians partnerships enhance brand visibility of the destination, attract passionate sports travellers, and position the Maldives beyond just a honeymoon destination. By associating with elite sports teams, we tap into loyal fan bases, drive high-value tourism, and create year-round demand,” said Dissanayake, adding that the group would support any initiative by Maldives tourism aimed at boosting arrivals to the country.
