The arrival of 84 tourists in the afternoon marked the opening of the refurbished Veligandu Island Resort.

Veligandu is situated in Rasdhoo Atoll in North Ari Atoll, about 51 km from Male International Airport.

Veligandu Island Resort
North Ari Atoll
Telephone: (960) 666 0519
Facsimilie:  (960) 666 0648
Email: reservations@veliganduisland.com
Website: www.veliganduisland.com

Maldives Tourism Development Cooperation’s Chairman Hussain Afeef said that 16 tourists had arrived on Saturday and had expressed satisfaction with the resort.

The first international flight is scheduled to arrive at Gan airport next Sunday and many more tourists are expected to arrive thereafter, Afeef told a press conference.

The Condor flight is scheduled to arrive directly from European with 80 Italian tourists.

Maldives Tourism Promotion Board’s Marketing Executive Mohamed Maleeh said that a special ceremony will be held to mark their arrival.

This resort was originally scheduled to be opened in early November but the opening had to be delayed because some construction works were yet to be finished.

The 600-bed resort will first operate with 273 beds until all works are completed by January 15.

In addition Maldives won in the Indian Ocean’s category as follows.

• Indian Ocean’s Leading Destination - Maldives
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Dive Destination - Maldives
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Diving Resort - Angsana Resort & Spa Maldives
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Resort - Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Spa Resort - Huvafen Fushi Maldives
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Tourist & Convention Bureau - Maldives Tourism Promotion Board
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Travel Agency - Inner Maldives Holidays
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Villa - Baros Residence, Baros Maldives

The global winners of the World Travel Awards for 2007 were announced at a star-studded ceremony on the island of Providenciales, from votes cast by 167,000 tourism professionals and agents who were asked to vote. Next year’s voting register is likely to be even greater, due to the unprecedented levels of interest and expectation.

Hailed as the ‘Oscars of the travel industry’, World Travel Awards have been attracting media attention from all corners of the globe.

Furthermore, some of the Maldives tourism industry players have been nominated in important categories. In this regard Inner Maldives has been nominated in the World’s Leading Travel Agency category, Baros Maldives got nominated in World’s Leading Villa and World’s Leading Beach Resort category, Hilton Maldives has been nominated in World’s Leading Resort category and Huvafenfushi has been nominated in World’s Leading Spa Resort category.

Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the “Travel industry’s equivalent to the Oscars”, the World Travel Awards are the most comprehensive and most prestigious awards program in the global travel industry. The World Travel Awards were established in 1993 to acknowledge and celebrate excellence in the world’s travel and tourism industry. With thousands of votes cast by travel professionals from 167,000 travel agencies in over 160 countries across the globe, winning a World Travel Award has become one of the highest accolades a travel product can achieve.

The 2007 World Travel Awards world winners will be announced and presented at the gala ceremony which will take place in the islands of Turks & Caicos on the 12th December 2007. Candidates nomination for world winners categories are based on the results from the four regional ceremonies which took place in Abu Dhabi, New York, NewcastleGateshead and Bangalore in 2007.

MTPB won the Indian Oceans Leading Tourist and Visitor Bureau Award in Bangalore ceremony. Maldives also won the Indian Ocean’s Leading Destinations Award and Indian Ocean’s Leading Dive Destination Award in the same ceremony. During this ceremony Maldives Tourism industry won awards in many categories.

The first tourist to the Maldives - Mr Corbin, made his first trip to the Maldives in October 1971 with a photographer friend Frenchesco Benini and a Maldivian Mr Kerefa Ahmed Naseem, in the ‘Maldives Exporter’, a cargo ship.

After an adventurous trip in the virtually unexplored paradise Mr Corbin wrote profusely about this journey to the Maldives, describing his first impression of the Maldives as “breathtaking”. Upon returning home, Mr Cobin wrote many articles enhanced by Mr Benini’s pictures and they eventually published a book called Duemila isole felici which was published in 1973.