Widely regarded as the most striking event on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS), the ASP WQS 6-Star PRIME SriLankan Airlines Pro in the Maldives has again drawn a brilliant field of 128 international surfers from 20 nations around the surfing world.

Current ASP World Tour surfer and 2007 SriLankan Airlines Pro Champion Heitor Alves (Brazil) heads the field as the event’s No. 1 seed with a long list of magnificent surfers in the lineup that includes Phil Macdonald (Australia), Sunny Garcia (Hawaii/2000 ASP World Champion), Aritz Aranburu (Basque), Pat Gudauskas (USA), Masotoshi Ohno (Japan), Travis Logie (South Africa) and current No. 1-rated ASP WQS surfer Adam Melling (Australia).

This year’s event also welcomes esteemed international surf brand Ocean and Earth as a supporting sponsor.

“We have seen the amazing perfection that the Maldives event has delivered to surfing world over the past five years through the web, images and vision and Ocean and Earth are excited to be involved,” Paul Munten, Ocean and Earth International Chief Executive Officer, said. “I understand it’s the warmest waters of any ASP tour event in the world and with most surfing nations either just out of winter season or heading into winter it has to be the perfect place to be.”

Perfection off the reeling Pasta Point reef, set on the glorious Chaaya Island – Dhonveli, is what this event has become famous for.

The event runs from the luxurious Sunset Beach Deck Bar and Restaurant, a location that delivers highest quality surfing at close range to the judges, spectators and media making for one of competitive surfing’s truly unique quality experiences.

Sunny Garcia, one of ASP’s most experienced and venerated competitive surfers ever, summed up his first experience in the Maldives last year saying, “This place is amazing with fantastic waves, crystal clear warm waters in a setting that is so perfect for a high level event – I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get here and I’ll certainly be back.”

A Quarterfinalist last year, Sunny is back in the field for 2009, and in such quality waves will be a certain contender.

As an ASP WQS 6-Star PRIME-rated location, the SriLankan Airlines Pro offers maximum points and prize money and the event is vital to the chances of all competitors surfing not only to win this event but also to qualify for the elite 2010 ASP World Tour.

It’s the perfect mid-year venue to the ASP WQS season and whoever wins this year’s 2009 SriLankan Airlines Pro will be ideally set up for the year’s tour.

ASP Australasia as the event managers will ensure a quality live web along with Television News Feeds, class complimentary Digital Images for newspapers and websites, Web highlight packages and a dedicated 30 minute international television program.

The Maldives has taken the first steps towards establishing a protected area for whale sharks. The government-backed initiative is being supported by biologists, diving professionals and representatives of the local community.

For years, the Maldives has been renowned for its whale shark encounters, which, while not as seasonal as those of the Seychelles, occur throughout the atolls during most of the year. Several locations – notably the exposed outer reef of South Ari Atoll – have emerged as whale-shark hotspots and attract boatloads of snorkelers on a daily basis.

Spearheading the move to organize and regulate these encounters is a group of local biologists who have formed the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP). Since 2006, this group has been investigating the populations and behavior of whale sharks in the Maldives through photo-identification, prey surveys and by taking part in an international genetic analysis and tagging project.

So far, a database of 100 individual sharks has been compiled and is being used to track the movements of these sharks around the atolls. The group is also investigating stories of other whale shark hotspots across the archipelago: it is thought that the sharks journey around the Maldives in order to find seasonal eddies that concentrate their favorite food – zooplankton – into relatively small areas. The long-term plan is to establish protected areas in which snorkeling and boat activity will be controlled, and the sharks will have a refuge from open-ocean fisheries.

A meeting was held at the end of 2008 to consider ways of protecting the sharks and ensuring that all boats conform to a code of conduct.

The Maldives has been ranked as the Best Country Brand for Beach and Best Country Brand for Rest and Relaxation for the year 2008. Maldives also ranked 2nd in the Best Country Brand for Natural Beauty and 3rd in the Best Country Brand for Resort and Lodging Options. The Country Brand Index was officially released during London’s World Travel Market in November 2008.

Country Brand Index is a comprehensive study of approximately 2,700 international business and leisure travellers from nine countries. It is conducted by FutureBrand, a global brand consultancy company and Weber Shandwick which is a public relations firm.

The main marketing slogan for the destination Maldives is “Maldives…the Sunny Side of Life”. The wellness and relaxation aspect is promoted under the theme of “Maldives…the Spiritual Side of Life”. Maldives was ranked number one in these two areas. Maldives emerged as the number one in both Beach and Rest and Relaxation categories after successfully competing with countries like Tahiti, Bahamas and Australia.

Maldives also won the ‘World’s Most Romantic Destination‘ award at the WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS last year.

Source: visitmaldives.com

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and representatives from Maldives tourism industry participated in the China International Travel Mart 2008 held from 20 to 23rd November 2008 at China New International Expo Centre in Shanghai.

A total of 13 tourism related companies from Maldives participated in the fair. The four day long fair attracted over 90,000 visitors. The visitors included 40,000 public and 50,000 travel trade and media. Maldives takes part in this fair every alternative year when it is held in Shanghai.

China has emerged as one of the most important and potential emerging markets for Maldives from Asia region. China attracted 35,797 visitors to Maldives till the end of October 2008. This is an increase of 15.5 percent compare to the same period last year. Last year Maldives received a total of 35,976 Chinese visitors.

Source: visitmaldives.com

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and representatives from Maldives tourism industry participated in the World Travel Mart 2008 from 10 to 13th November 2008 at ExCel London. This is the biggest travel trade event held in the United Kingdom.

A total of 70 tourism related companies from Maldives participated in the fair of which 33 companies represented resorts and hotels in the Maldives. Also travel agencies selling resorts, hotels and liveaboards participated in this fair. The three day long fair attracted over 50,000 visitors. Visitors include press, media and travel trade. This year’s fair attracted 5500 exhibitors representing over 200 countries and regions.

This year, Maldives stand at WTM was re-designed to portray the dynamism of the tourism product developments in the destination Maldives.

UK is the major generating market for Maldives with 17.8% of the market share. Maldives welcomed 89,952 visitors from UK by the end of September 2008.