With its highly tourism-driven economy, perhaps it comes as no surprise that The Maldives will reportedly become the world's first country to launch its own hospitality loyalty program.
The 'Maldives Border Miles' program is a "tourism promotion program initiated by Maldives Immigration, and developed with joint stakeholders", according to a recent tweet made by Maldives Immigration, an official government-run organization.
The social-media post disclosed that the program will offer three loyalty member tiers, and that tourists will earn points based upon their number of visits and the duration of their stays. "Additional points will be awarded for visits to celebrate special occasions," the Twitter announcement noted.
The tiers are called Abaarana (Gold), Antara (Silver) and Aida (Bronze)-the names of which are all three borrowed from Divehi, The Maldives' primary language.
It remains to be seen how travelers will take to this first-of-its-kind program from the South Asian island nation. Its status as a luxury destination coincides with high hotel and resort rates, which means access is largely limited to the wealthy. Could a loyalty points system benefit those with a little less to spend by offering upgrades and freebies for repeated patronage?
Maldives Immigration has not yet released any details as to what sorts of perks loyalty members can expect to see, or how many points will be required to qualify for each of the three categories. But, a representative for Maldives' national tourism board told CNN Travel that the loyalty program is set to launch in December 2020.
The Maldives was one of the first Asian-region countries to reopen its borders to international travelers back on July 15, and did so without quarantine or COVID-19 testing requirements.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
