Colour and music from eight EU accession and applicant countries are expected to wow visitors to the annual Air Malta International Travel Exhibition (AMITEX), which will open at the Trade Fair grounds in Naxxar on Thursday.

Dancers, singers and musicians from Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus, Turkey, Czech Republic and Romania will take part in this year's AMITEX fair, and each will perform at least once during the four days of the exhibition.

The foreigners will also add colour to Valletta on Friday morning when they parade along Republic Street on their way to visit President Eddie Fenech Adami.

Malta's representatives for next month's Eurovision, Julie and Ludwig, will be giving a live show on the first night of the fair, that will run until Sunday.

Air Malta group head marketing and PR John Saliba said tourism had increased substantially since AMITEX started being organised. He said the exhibition had brought variety and competition.

Mr Saliba told a news conference that last year there was a good response by exhibitors to the fair being held after Easter, and therefore this year it was again organised after Easter.

Mr Saliba said the Air Malta stand would include pictures of the new fleet of aircraft, five of which have already been received by the company, while the rest will be arriving next year.

Air Malta group head commercial Martin Rossignaud said this summer Air Malta would operate to 45 destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. He said the airline's package tours included long and short breaks. Mr Rossignaud said there was an increase of almost 24 per cent in the number of clients booking Flyaway packages between March 2003 and last month.

AMITEX will be open on Thursday and Friday between 6 and 10 p.m., on Saturday between 5 and 10 p.m. and on Sunday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 4 and 9 p.m.

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