Maldives Named World’s Leading Destination for Sixth Consecutive Year

The Maldives has once again reinforced its status as a global tourism powerhouse after being crowned World’s Leading Destination 2025 for the sixth consecutive year, while also securing the title of World’s Leading Green Destination 2025 for the second year in a row at the prestigious World Travel Awards.

The awards were announced at the World Travel Awards Grand Final Gala Ceremony held at Exhibition World Bahrain. Established in 1993, the World Travel Awards are internationally recognised as the highest honour in the global travel and tourism industry, with winners determined through worldwide voting by industry professionals and the public.

Winning the world’s top destination title for six successive years marks a historic milestone for Maldives, reflecting its long-term consistency, strong brand recognition, and sustained global appeal. The repeat win as the World’s Leading Green Destination further highlights the country’s strong commitment to environmental protection, sustainable tourism development, and the conservation of its fragile marine ecosystems.

Record-Breaking Tourism Performance

The international recognition comes during a landmark year for the Maldives’ tourism sector. Visitor arrivals crossed the two million mark earlier than ever before, placing the destination firmly on course to achieve the national target of 2.3 million arrivals by the end of 2025. This strong growth has been driven by strategic global marketing campaigns, high-impact partnerships, expanded trade engagement and improved destination visibility across key source markets.

Throughout the year, the Visit Maldives Corporation (VMC) implemented a series of coordinated global initiatives to strengthen the Maldives’ leadership position. These included ambassador programmes, large-scale digital campaigns, targeted roadshows, co-branded partnerships and the launch of the 2026 “Ocean Nation” destination branding theme. The Maldives also expanded its presence at major international tourism trade fairs and executed successful collaborative marketing efforts across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.

Regional Awards Also Secured

In addition to the two global honours, the Maldives secured three regional titles at this year’s awards:

- Indian Ocean’s Best MICE Destination 2025 – Maldives

- Indian Ocean’s Best Incentive Destination 2025 – Malé

- Indian Ocean’s Best Tourism Authority Website 2025 – VisitMaldives.com

These accolades reflect the country’s expanding tourism portfolio, which now extends beyond leisure travel into MICE tourism, incentive travel, urban tourism and digitally enhanced visitor engagement.

Industry-Wide Achievement

Officials said the Maldives’ success at the World Travel Awards is the result of the collective efforts of the tourism industry, local communities, government authorities and the global travel trade. The continued international recognition reaffirms the Maldives’ reputation as a leading premium destination and underscores the effectiveness of year-round destination promotion led by VMC and its industry partners.