Marketing Malta as a cultural centre

Woody allen once described American television as adverts interrupted by programmes. The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) wouldn't want Kultura 21 to emulate commercial television, though "Roamer's" concern for the financial well-being of our publication (The Sunday Times, July 18) is genuinely appreciated.

With a potential target of roughly 120,000 readers ("Roamer's" estimate), who get it free of charge when they buy this newspaper, Kultura 21 publishes a detailed calendar of cultural events covering the two months following its publication date. MCCA is legally bound to do this for the sake of local audiences, but the cultural calendar may also be displayed in hotels and brought to the attention of tourists.

"Roamer" is right in insisting that the island's major cultural events should be advertised abroad well in time for tourists and tour operators to get to know about them. The Manoel Theatre is already doing this to some extent, and the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) distributes thousands of brochures promoting Malta's artistic and cultural heritage in most European capitals.

Websites may not be enough, but they are essential, in this day and age, when it comes to marketing important events like the jazz festival, the Caravaggio exhibition and the opera season.

The MCCA is actively seeking closer collaboration with the MTA in promoting Malta as a cultural centre. With tourism and culture now falling under one ministry, it should be possible to establish new synergies between the two, for their mutual benefit.

As "Roamer" suggests, by having a member of MCCA sitting on the MTA board, the MCCA's ideas stand a much better chance of being put into practice. The main reason for this is that the MTA's spending power is much stronger than the MCCA's, whose aims, projects and activities have been heavily curtailed by budgetary constraints.