I am thrilled to invite you to join us on a, particularly special Incentive Trip at the end of this year! I thank you for your continued hard work and absolute dedication through what has been an extremely challenging eighteen months. It is important for us to celebrate our achievements and milestones as Bidvest, but we need to do so responsibly.

We will be sharing 6 magical nights on the award-winning Resort Island of Soneva Fushi, located in the northwestern Baa Atoll of the Maldives. We are committed to ensuring that we put sufficient and suitable control measures in place to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19 and practicing our duty of care; keeping everyone on the trip safe is our number one priority.

• Soneva Fushi Island is secured wholly and exclusively by the Bidvest Group for the duration of the trip.

• The international flights from South Africa are private chartered aircraft, to ensure long-haul safety to and from the Maldives of the larger main group of guests.

• Domestic Maldivian flights and water transfers between the international airport and the Island resort are privately chartered.

• All Soneva staff are thoroughly tested and monitored on a continuous basis, with great success in maintaining zero infection amongst those hosting you.

There are strict Covid protocols to be followed by all guests. These will be detailed on a separate page to follow, but in short:

• All guests must be fully vaccinated. We will therefore limit the attendees on this trip to fully vaccinated individuals. The risk of a guest developing serious health issues during the trip increases significantly when they are not vaccinated.

• All guests, including those who have completed the prescribed dose of Covid-19 vaccines and recovered from Covid-19, will need to hold a negative PCR test conducted at most 96 (ninety-six) hours before departure for the Maldives.

• PCR testing and screening procedures will take place on your arrival in the Maldives.

• All Soneva and BIDTravel Airport Arrival and Transfer Hosts will be wearing masks, disposable gloves and always follow the highest standards of hygiene.

• All guest luggage will be transferred separately from the airport to the Resort and will be thoroughly sanitized before it reaches your Villa.

• All vehicles (both land and watercraft) used by Soneva for airport transfers will be operated with the windows down, and they are thoroughly sanitized after every trip.

• On arrival at the Resort, which will be later in the day, you will be escorted to your Villa where we ask you to remain. Settle in, relax and enjoy the unique and exquisite surroundings. Dinner will be served in-villa on this first night and as you retire for bed, your PCR test results will be in finalization, so they are ready before you wake the following morning.

• We suggest and request that you only remove your mask once you are within the privacy of your private bedroom.

• The day before departure, PCR testing will again be conducted by Soneva for all guests, and certification of the status of your test provided on departure so that you have such available for airport procedures on departure and returning home.

• In the unlikely event of a guest, who is fully vaccinated, being infected by COVID-19 on the trip, the guest and partner will be placed in quarantine in an isolated area of the resort for a period of 14 days, at no personal cost.

• Government regulations worldwide do not permit air transportation of passengers who are Covid-19 positive. Further our charter and commercial partners do not accept COVID-19 positive travelers as it exposes their own staff to the virus, as well as the airline being levied significant penalties should they land back in South Africa or the United Kingdom and Ireland having transported COVID-19 positive travelers.  Soneva has purchased a “Life Cycler 96” testing machine from Roche and has built a COVID-19 laboratory at the Maafaru International Airport, to facilitate safe, faster, and convenient testing of their guests. The hospital on Eydhafushi (Soneva Fushi’s neighboring island), only 10 minutes away by speedboat, has a newly built ICU unit.

That all being said, one of the most exciting aspects of this Island trip is that once your arrival PCR test returns negative, you can be MASK-FREE for the duration of your stay at the Resort.

Soneva’s luxurious, yet down to earth, personality is further echoed in its famous mantra: “No news…no shoes….”!

We want you to relax, completely.

As has been the case with the past two incentive trips, we will be presenting the Bidvest CEO Awards at a very special Gala event on the Island.

I hope that you are able to join me and look forward to a long-overdue get-together and welcoming you to Soneva Fushi!

Sincerely

Mpumi