Malta's tourism drive in Italy

The Malta Tourism Authority has embarked on a new drive to attract tourists from Italy, with a poster campaign highlighting Malta's European origins and character set to run between March and June.

And in a further boost to the cause, Touring Club Italy is to publish a special edition of its travel books dedicated to Malta and Maltese cultural riches.

The advertising campaign was launched at a news conference for the Italian press this weekend at the Malta Business Centre in Milan, which is run by the MTA, Malta Enterprise and Bank of Valletta.

Posters and billboards will be put up in Milan, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Venice and Bari, targeting Easter, spring and summer tourism.

The campaign emphasises Malta's beauty, art, culture and history, and its new European Union member status.

The Touring Club's publication fits in with the MTA's efforts to promote Malta as a destination for the cultural traveller: the club has half a million members of a high socio-economic standing for whom travel is a pastime.

"This is the kind of market we want - the more discerning tourist," said MTA chairman John C. Grech, who was in Italy for the launch of the advertising campaign which coincided with President Guido de Marco's visit to Italy.

"The publication, which is also a guidebook, will give more more importance to our unique value in terms of our culture, history, events and so on," said Dr Grech.

The book's introduction is written by the President, who met the Touring Club's director general, Guido Venturini, when he visited the Malta Business Centre. The publication will be out next month.

The MTA's regional director for Italy and France, Dominic Micallef, said the book was in line with their strategy of trying to give Malta a new image in Italy.

"We will now have a manual which presents Malta in all its facets, from archaeology to gastronomy. The local Maltese trade has helped a lot through advertising, so the book will give a really complete image of Malta in Italy.

"This is part of our repositioning of Malta. We're going for quality tourism."

Malta experienced a slight decline in tourism from Italy last year, with about 95,000 visitors compared to roughly 100,000 the year before.

Dr Grech said: "There has been a problem in many markets. Italy had a change of pattern more than anything else. Normally most of the business used to come in the peak of summer. This year the peak was lower than usual but we had a rebound in December."

He said 2002 had been the best year for tourism from Italy because of the number of students choosing Malta instead of the UK and the US following September 11.

The MTA was now hoping to make the market grow substantially by working more closely with tour operators and travel agencies, he said.