Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) on Tuesday signed an agreement with an Indonesian company to develop Virtual Reality (VR) 360 photography based multimedia content to promote Maldives tourism.

At a ceremony held at MMPRC office in capital Male, MMPRC’s Acting Managing Director Haris Mohamed and PT Gecko Digital Indonesia’s Founder and CEO James South signed the agreement.

In a statement, MMPRC said Gecko Digital will create standalone native application to promote the destination, and revamp the official destination promotion website of Maldives by including VR and 360 photography based technologies. The company will also provide extensive training and assistance to fully utilise the software, it added.

According to MMPRC, the contents created by Gecko Digital will be used at events and fairs participated by MMPRC to enhance the visitor experience through VR technology.

“It is believed that this collaboration will help promote the Maldives as a tourist destination and take Maldives to the highest level in the digital arena by providing the visitors with a virtual reality experience of the destination,” the statement read.

Gecko Digital is a leading multimedia provider that offers the highest quality HD 360 virtual reality, virtual tours, promotional videography, commercial still photography and creative content development for sophisticated web-based marketing.

MMPRC has earlier announced plans to participate in 17 international travel fairs in 2018, in a bid to ramp up tourism promotion.

Meanwhile, MVR 50 million (USD 3.3 million) have been allocated from the proposed budget for 2018 for tourism promotion.