News Desk
MALE’ — The Visit Maldives Corporation has officially launched an international photography competition titled “This is My Maldives”, designed to showcase the archipelago’s natural landscapes and cultural heritage through the lenses of global and local content creators. The tourism board announced the initiative during a state television broadcast marking the debut of “Creatoll”, a newly developed national digital marketplace intended to bridge the gap between Maldivian visual artists and the broader commercial travel sector.
The three-month competition, which runs from 1 July to 30 September, invites photographers of all skill levels to submit original imagery capturing the island nation’s distinct ecosystems, local inhabitants, traditional customs, and unique travel experiences. According to the state corporation, the grand prize winner will receive a cash reward of 50,000 Rufiyaa. While participants retain the underlying copyrights to their work, the competition terms dictate that the tourism board will secure comprehensive usage rights to integrate the submitted entries into official international promotional campaigns and state media materials.
The concurrent rollout of the Creatoll platform represents a broader strategic shift toward digitising the local creative economy. Tourism officials described the platform as a centralised hub where independent digital creators can directly license their visual and cultural content to resort properties, international media outlets, government ministries, and foreign diplomatic missions. By intertwining the photography contest with the marketplace launch, authorities aim to build a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides immediate financial opportunities for local visual artists while generating authentic marketing assets for national tourism promotion.
