The Maldives becomes a destination inside a video game

Visit Maldives Corporation has signed a partnership with Hey Travellers Private Limited, a Maldivian digital and gaming company, to make the Maldives the exclusive destination partner inside the Loopcraft gaming platform, the corporation announced on Thursday.

The gameplay is travel simulation with real places in it: players build custom avatars, explore authentic environments modelled on actual Maldivian resorts, design a dream island resort of their own, and complete quests for points — with winners able to receive actual resort stays. The agreement was signed by the corporation's chief executive Ibrahim Shiuree and Hey Travellers managing director Nasru Dean.

"An innovative initiative such as this opens up an entirely new and dynamic audience segment for the Maldives," Shiuree said. The stated targets are younger global audiences, solo travellers and digital-first consumers — people who may meet the atolls first as a rendered world.

Hey Travellers will report regularly on user numbers, reach and downloads, which means the experiment will at least produce its own scoreboard.