MATI hosts 3rd Insight forum on sales, revenue, engineering

The Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) hosted the 3rd Edition of MATI Insight on Wednesday at H. Meerumaa, Male’. The event brought together MATI members, industry stakeholders, senior governmental officials and technical experts to share knowledge, engage in discussions, and exchange insights across two key thematic areas: Sales and Revenue and Engineering.

The day’s proceedings began with a minute of silence to celebrate and honour the life of the late Mohamed Umar Maniku, who was serving as MATI’s Chairman at the time of his passing on 30th of August 2025.

The first session on Sales and Revenue, featured a series of expert presentations. Victoria Rossi, Business Development Manager for Asia at Yango Ads, presented on “Russian Speaking Travellers: Insights and Trends”. This was followed by Karan Mahesh, Senior Sales – South and Southeast Asia at STR, CoStar Group, who delivered a presentation titled “Hospitality Performance Pulse” that focused on key performance metrics for the Tourism Industry of Maldives vs competing destinations.

The session concluded with a presentation by Calvin Li, Executive Vice President and Head of Transaction Advisory Services, Hotels & Hospitality Group at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), on “Tourism Trends & ROI: Maldives vs Asia-Pacific Competitors”. Each presentation was followed by interactive Q&A sessions, and the session wrapped up with networking over lunch.

The second session shifted focus to Engineering. It began with a panel discussion on “Integrated Water, Sewerage, and Waste Management in Island Resorts”, moderated by Hassan Saeed, Resort Manager at Dhigali Maldives. Panelists included Mohamed Iyad, Chief Engineer at Treetop Hospital, Mohamed Aslam, Director at the Land and Marine Environmental Resource (LAMER) Group, and Indresh Bhatia, Senior Vice President of Technical & Maintenance at OPRO (Atmosphere Core).

This was followed by a presentation on renewable energy integration, its current landscape and future outlook by Simad Saeed, Managing Director of CDE Consulting. Dr Saeed then went on to moderate a second panel discussion on “Renewable Energy Integration, Power and Electrical Systems Resilience”, with panelists comprising Shahul Hameed, URA Licensed Engineer, Daniel Reinhardt, Head of Sales and Project Development at Swimsol GmbH, and Jameer Bagwan, Chief Engineer at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands.

The session concluded with high tea and networking among participants.