ITB Berlin 2010 Begins!

ITB Berlin, world’s leading travel trade show, is where global business happens! The ITB Berlin Convention is regarded as the leading think tank for the global travel industry. From 10 to 14 March 2010 more exhibitors than ever before will be presenting their products and services, which cover the entire added value chain of the international travel industry.

The 11,127 exhibiting companies from 187 countries occupy the whole of the Exhibition Grounds, comprising 26 halls and covering 160,000 square metres.

According the organiser Messe Berlin the show drew slightly more participants than last year.In 2009 a total of 11,098 companies from 187 countries exhibited their products and services to 178,971 visitors, who included 110,857 trade visitors.

The Maldives Tourism Promotion Board and other institutions involved in the tourism industry will be taking part to promote the Maldives in the fair.

This year’s Berlin show will be the first to include a platform for “mobile travel services” which highlights the future mobile usage in looking and booking hotel services and ticketing.

At the start of the 44th ITB Berlin there are encouraging signs for the travel industry, Exhibitors are looking to the future and investing to make their presentations at the fair a success.

Shapes of the Maldives Islands

The Atolls of the Maldives are very complex structures and the country itself is formed from 26 natural atolls which are now divided into 20 for administrative purposes.

Built vigilantly over thousands of years, like necklaces draped along an undersea plateau, 1,200 coral islands, each island is unique in its shape and full of wonders. These ring shaped coral structures can be tens of kilometres in diameter with individual reefs large enough to support the beautiful islands.

A British Captain Robert Moresby drew the first accurate maritime charts of the Maldives in 1834-36 and they were used by Maldivian navigators to sail through Maldives until the 1990s.

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the Maldives, apart from its breath taking beauty, is the unique shapes of the islands. From about, we could spot islands with a green, white, turquoise blue surrounded by navy blue or deep blue combination. Again, this could vary in unimaginable shapes, at time only the sand deposit shifts around the island, changing the shapes of the island seasonally and some island look really interesting from the time of its creation.

Here is some of the visual process of the most beautiful islands in the world in the making.  Largely the islands take share similar to the base reef the island is built on.

On some rare cases where the reef is excessively large, and the island that come through the surface is small, it may take many different shapes before settling with vegetation where roots or lose coral may define boundaries.  This is how the islands are “born”.

This is an interesting shape of reef which i thought was worth sharing.

First that little island roots out from the depth of the Indian Ocean. Than we see little island or sand bank buds from the reef and starts collecting drifting waste, woods and almost anything that will prepare the sand bank capable of attracting birds of seed.  Than little greens patches starts appears.

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Here is the same process with different shape of the islands.

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It is sad that at the end we go and damage the beauty in the name of life, development and living. Male’, as and island would have been a beautiful place now no more!

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Here are some of the islands which are distinctively different and beautiful in their shape.

[Show as slideshow]

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Story of Sun Eclipse from Anantara Resorts Maldives

On 15th January 2010 the sun rose, heralding another day in paradise, complete with blue skies, sparsely populated with soft white clouds. As the hours passed there was a sense of growing anticipation as staff and guests alike looked forward to witnessing a solar eclipse, and it had been predicted that the islands of the Maldives would be the best spot for viewing this annular eclipse of the sun.

To compliment this exceptional spectacle, Anantara Resorts designed a splendid Eclipse Cruise. At 11am, participating guests accompanied by Resident Manager Patrick Both, set sail for a vantage point which would afford unobstructed views of the eclipse.

As the Moon moved slowly between the Earth and the Sun, chilled aromatic champagne and delectable canapés were served as guests mingled and observed the progress of the moon through special eclipse-glasses. At approx 12:20 our party was rewarded at first with a clear and spectacular view of the eclipse; then, as clouds moved across the sky, the sight was perhaps even more striking; it was indeed a memorable excursion for all those on board.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, totally or partially obscuring Earth’s view of the Sun. The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 was an annular eclipse of the Sun, which happens when the Moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most, but not all of the Sun’s light. The Maldives was in fact the best place for viewing this eclipse as this is where it was longest on land with 10.8 viewable minutes.

Maldives Holidays 2010

The way the world economy is trending the tourists from world over will have a good treat to travel to the Maldives in 2010. There is an overall increase in supply of flight seats and hotel beds in the Maldives. This combined with Global financial crisis, the market has changed from sellers’ to buyers’ thereby increasing the bargaining power of buyers pulling down the ADR (average daily rate) for the traveller advantage.

Maldives is going through a time that it has never been through before, even during the time of natural and man-made disasters such as tsunami and 9/11. Predictions are that there might even be some unsold hotel beds through Christmas and New year in the Maldives. For an experienced traveller this might be an opportunity to get an extreme value for money and for those who want to visit the Maldives for the first time, this is the TIME!

Try some of these large hotel and travel groups

Universal Resorts
Villa Hotels
Sun Hotels
AAA Hotels
J Resorts
Crown Tours
Inner Maldives
Intour Maldives
Lets Go Maldives
100 percent Maldives

New Seven Wonders of Nature – Finalists Part 2

Maldives has been nominated for the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign. This campaign is a process in which seven natural wonders of the world are chosen by people through a global poll which will be declared in the year 2011.

The campaign is being organized by the Swiss based New7Wonders Foundation after their success in organizing the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

For the Finalist stage, the 28 New7Wonders of Nature Finalists have been put to popular vote in July 2009. Voting will continue throughout 2010 and into 2011. During this time, the New7Wonders World Tour will visit each of the Finalists to allow them to present themselves to the voters across the globe.

The New 7 Wonders campaign aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments and natural sites. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.

Please vote for Maldives by visiting www.new7wonders.com and make its beauty known to the world as one of the natural wonders of the world.

The Maldives guide team would like to call all Maldivians, fans and well wishers of Maldives to join our effort to make Maldives as one of the Natural Wonders of the World.

You can also join the facebook group and follow on twitter.

World’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting concludes in the Maldives

World’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting was chaired by the President Mohamed Nasheed. The meeting was conducted at a depth of six meters (20 feet) just north of the capital Male’.

While in the underwater meeting the cabinet including president and the vice-president signed a document ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, calling on all nations to cut their carbon emissions.
Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed and communicated with white boards and hand signals.

World's first ever Cabinet meeting Underwater - Maldives

They will also participate in a bicycle ride in the capital Male later in the day.

source: http://presidencymaldives.gov.mv/

British Airways Launches New Flights to Maldives

British Airways is to launch its new thrice-weekly direct flights from Gatwick to Male, Maldives from October 25, 2009.
The new service will be the first time ever British Airways has offered flights to the Maldives. As of now, the new flights to Male will depart on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Holidays in The Maldives will introduce British Airways customers to a fantastic selection of tiny palm fringed coral islands each with its own exclusive resort hotel. Each of these international standard hotels in the Maldives is four or five stars in quality offering a great range of activities such as diving, snorkelling, sailing and fishing, or you can simply laze your days away sunbathing on a stunning white, sandy beach.

The routes will be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft with a three-class configuration: World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club WorldBritish Airways is to launch its new thrice-weekly direct flights from Gatwick to Male, Maldives from October 25, 2009.The new service will be the first time ever British Airways has offered flights to the Maldives. As of now, the new flights to Male will depart on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Holidays in The Maldives will introduce British Airways customers to a fantastic selection of tiny palm fringed coral islands each with its own exclusive resort hotel.

Each of these international standard hotels in the Maldives is four or five stars in quality offering a great range of activities such as diving, snorkelling, sailing and fishing, or you can simply laze your days away sunbathing on a stunning white, sandy beach.

The routes will be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft with a three-class configuration: World Traveller, World Traveller Plus and Club World.

Source: pr-canada.net