The First Tourists in Maldives

The Maldives – now a renowned tourist destination world-wide, entered the tourism industry with very humble beginnings in the 1970s when a small group of Italian travellers came to the Maldives.

The first tourist to the Maldives – Mr Corbin, made his first trip to the Maldives in October 1971 with a photographer friend Frenchesco Benini and a Maldivian Mr Kerefa Ahmed Naseem, in the ‘Maldives Exporter’, a cargo ship.

After an adventurous trip in the virtually unexplored paradise Mr Corbin wrote profusely about this journey to the Maldives, describing his first impression of the Maldives as “breathtaking”. Upon returning home, Mr Cobin wrote many articles enhanced by Mr Benini’s pictures and they eventually published a book called Duemila isole felici which was published in 1973.