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 and tourism boards don’t take our word for it. 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.’ He’d worked with us at a previous property first, seen the numbers move, and brought us back to capture additional areas at One and Only Le Saint Geran. That pattern repeats across our client base. Luca Guerra, Director of Sales and Marketing at St. Regis Le Morne, noted that the virtual experience we built ‘had a positive contribution to business’ and became a go-to resource for his sales and reservations team to show off the resort’s unique features to prospective guests. These aren’t vanity metrics. They’re booking conversions driven by letting travellers explore a property before they commit.

When MMPRC evaluated how to spend MVR 50 million allocated for 2018 tourism promotion across 17 international travel fairs, the core question was simple: what actually stops a traveller from choosing the Maldives over Bali, the Maldives over the Seychelles, the Maldives over anywhere else? A brochure doesn’t answer that. A static photo doesn’t either. A 360 virtual tour does. It puts someone inside an overwater villa, looking out at a turquoise lagoon, before they’ve spent a dollar. That’s the moment the decision gets made. MMPRC’s choice to partner with Gecko Digital wasn’t just about technology for technology’s sake. It was about giving their team a tool that works at trade fairs, on destination websites, and inside standalone apps, so every touchpoint in the traveller’s research journey reinforces the same immersive impression of the Maldives.

One of the questions we hear from hotel groups and resort operators is whether our quality holds up across a portfolio, not just a single flagship shoot. It does. Shanaka Perera, VP Digital and Marketing at Minor Hotels and Resorts, which includes Anantara and Avani, said our team ‘delivers consistently high-quality work and understands how to present our properties in a way that aligns with our brand standards.’ Ali Abdulla, General Manager at Atmosphere Core, described the experience across their global brands as ‘consistent and seamless,’ with strong support through both production and post-production on every individual product. For groups managing multiple properties across different markets, that consistency matters as much as the quality of any single tour. You can’t have one resort looking polished and another looking like an afterthought. Our process is built to scale without the quality dropping.

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-specific quotes replace the vague booking-rate claims currently on the page.

Add a short section titled ‘How the MMPRC Project Came Together’ covering the end-to-end workflow: on-location 360 capture across Maldives properties, post-production and stitching, native app build, website integration, and the staff training component already referenced in the MMPRC agreement. Pull from the knowledge base point that Gecko Digital’s approach runs ‘from production to post-production’ and link to the virtual tour production service page already mentioned in the body copy.

Add two to three sentences referencing comparable completed projects — specifically Aqua Blu in Indonesia and the Anantara and Avani properties under Minor Hotels — with a direct quote from Shanaka Perera noting that Gecko Digital ‘understands how to present our properties in a way that aligns with our brand standards.’ Close with a link to the full project portfolio so AI crawlers and readers can verify the depth of regional experience.