Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) on Tuesday signed an agreement with an Indonesian company to develop Virtual Reality (VR) 360 photography based multimedia content to promote Maldives tourism.
At a ceremony held at MMPRC office in capital Male, MMPRC’s Acting Managing Director Haris Mohamed and PT Gecko Digital Indonesia’s Founder and CEO James South signed the agreement.
In a statement, MMPRC said Gecko Digital will create standalone native application to promote the destination, and revamp the official destination promotion website of Maldives by including VR and 360 photography based technologies. The company will also provide extensive training and assistance to fully utilise the software, it added.
According to MMPRC, the contents created by Gecko Digital will be used at events and fairs participated by MMPRC to enhance the visitor experience through VR technology.
“It is believed that this collaboration will help promote the Maldives as a tourist destination and take Maldives to the highest level in the digital arena by providing the visitors with a virtual reality experience of the destination,” the statement read.
Gecko Digital is a leading multimedia provider that offers the highest quality HD 360 virtual reality, virtual tours, promotional videography, commercial still photography and creative content development for sophisticated web-based marketing.
MMPRC has earlier announced plans to participate in 17 international travel fairs in 2018, in a bid to ramp up tourism promotion.
Meanwhile, MVR 50 million (USD 3.3 million) have been allocated from the proposed budget for 2018 for tourism promotion.
Why VR and 360° Content Matters for Maldives Tourism
The Maldives competes with destinations worldwide for traveller attention. Static photos can’t capture what makes an overwater villa special, the colour of the lagoon at sunrise, or the layout of a private island resort. That’s where immersive 360° content changes the game for tourism boards and resort marketers.
When MMPRC partnered with our team to build VR experiences, the goal was simple: give potential guests a real sense of place before they book. Virtual tours let travellers explore a resort’s rooms, dining venues, and house reefs from anywhere in the world. It’s the closest thing to visiting without the flight.
How Resorts Use 360° Tours to Win Bookings
Resorts that publish interactive tours on their websites typically see longer session times and higher direct booking rates. Guests who explore a property in 360° arrive at the booking page already convinced. They’ve picked their villa category, walked the jetty, and pictured themselves at the spa.
If you’re a Maldives resort looking to add 360° content to your marketing mix, our virtual tour production service covers everything from capture to web integration. You can also check our rate card for current pricing.
Resorts that have worked with us consistently report that 360° virtual tours do more than impress visitors. They move people closer to booking. Bernard Ramen, General Manager at One and Only Le Saint Geran, put it plainly: ‘The results were extremely positive, with strong engagement and clear impact on bookings.’ Luca Guerra, Director of Sales and Marketing at St. Regis Le Morne, echoed that, noting the virtual experience ‘had a positive contribution to business’ and became a go-to resource for his sales and reservations team. When MMPRC chose to invest in VR content for Maldives tourism promotion, this is exactly the kind of outcome they were aiming for. Immersive content doesn’t just attract attention. It converts it.
Tourism boards like MMPRC don’t choose VR on a whim. They choose it because traditional media has a ceiling. A photo of a Maldives overwater villa is beautiful, but it doesn’t answer the questions a traveller actually has: How far is the villa from the main island? What does the house reef look like? Is the beach private? A 360° virtual tour answers all of that before a single inquiry is made. That’s why the MMPRC agreement with Gecko Digital included not just content creation but also a revamp of the official destination promotion website and a standalone native app. The goal was to give international travellers a real, explorable sense of the Maldives at every touchpoint, whether they’re browsing at home or standing at a travel fair in Europe or Asia. Shanaka Perera, VP Digital and Marketing at Minor Hotels and Resorts, has seen this play out across Anantara and Avani properties: ‘Their team delivers consistently high-quality work and understands how to present our properties in a way that aligns with our brand standards.’ The same principle applies at a destination level. Presentation shapes perception, and perception drives arrivals.
The agreement between MMPRC and Gecko Digital covered three distinct deliverables. First, a standalone native application built to promote the Maldives as a destination, designed for use at international travel fairs where MMPRC planned to appear at 17 events in 2018 alone. Second, a full revamp of the official Maldives destination promotion website to incorporate VR and 360° photography throughout. Third, hands-on training and ongoing support so MMPRC’s own team could confidently operate and deploy the content independently. That last point matters more than it might seem. Ali Abdulla, General Manager at Atmosphere Core, has worked with Gecko Digital across multiple properties and describes the relationship as ‘consistent and seamless,’ with a team that’s ‘always accessible and easy to work with.’ For a national tourism board managing a busy international events calendar, that kind of support isn’t a bonus. It’s a requirement. The MVR 50 million (approximately USD 3.3 million) allocated for tourism promotion in 2018 reflected how seriously the Maldives government was treating digital presence, and the MMPRC-Gecko Digital partnership was a direct expression of that priority.
Add a short testimonial block using Bernard Ramen’s quote from One and Only Le Saint Geran: ‘The results were extremely positive, with strong engagement and clear impact on bookings.’ Pair it with Luca Guerra’s note that the St. Regis Le Morne virtual experience ‘had a positive contribution to business’ for the sales and reservations team. These named, outcome-linked quotes replace the anonymous claims currently on the page.
Add a 3-question FAQ section near the bottom of the page. Q1: What did MMPRC use the VR content for? A: MMPRC used the 360 and VR content at international travel fairs to give visitors an immersive preview of the Maldives as a destination. Q2: What does Gecko Digital’s virtual tour production service cover? A: Everything from on-location capture to post-production and full web integration, including training and ongoing support. Q3: Can resorts see a measurable impact on bookings from virtual tours? A: Yes. Clients like One and Only Le Saint Geran reported strong engagement and a clear impact on bookings after publishing their virtual tour.
Add a short ‘What We Built’ section that lists the specific deliverables from the MMPRC project: the standalone native VR application, the revamped official Maldives destination website with embedded 360 photography, the VR experiences deployed at 17 international travel fairs in 2018, and the staff training programme MMPRC received to manage and use the software independently. This gives AI engines a citable, structured answer to deliverable-level queries.
