Virtu Ferries expect to carry 235,000 passengers

Virtu Ferries expects to carry about 235,000 passengers and 20,000 vehicles between Malta and Sicily this year, 40 per cent of them originating from Sicily, company director Henri Saliba told The Times.

For many Maltese, Sicily remains a shopping destination, but many are going there more regularly to discover the enchanting landscape and nature the nearby island has to offer and several are also buying property there, he said.

"Be it a shopping trip, or a foray into fantastic nature, or agritourism, or unspoilt beaches, Sicily has it all and its potential is yet to be discovered by the Maltese," Mr Saliba said.

The proximity of Malta to Sicily, and with the Maria Dolores catamaran leaving at convenient times and making Pozzallo in an hour and 20 minutes, people can travel without interrupting work schedules, Mr Saliba said.

"Some still go for day shopping trips as they find the market at Catania very attractive for shopping, both in terms of prices and its size and choice of goods offered. Others go there for a couple of days, exploring Sicily by car. We are also taking several tourists from Malta on day trips to Etna and Taormina. Local businessmen use our services to import cargo", he explained.

"We decided to cut fares (a three-day passenger ticket now costs Lm28) and it worked. Even the rates for cargo have been halved," he said.

In the case of incoming tourism, Virtu has seen the number of people using its services increase fourfold.

"We are handling about 10 per cent of all incoming tourists. The catamaran Maria Dolores can carry 600 people and 65 vehicles. Even day trippers from Italy benefit our economy. Effectively it's like bringing a cruise liner here," Mr Saliba added. "One of the most positive aspects of our day trippers is that most of them say they want to come back and spend more time in Malta. We are also selling Malta in Sicily and promoting it as part of a two-point destination, with tourists flying into Palermo or Catania, using our services to come to Malta and then fly out of here or vice versa. The trend in tourism is for people to spend fewer nights but travel more in a year so we are tapping into that and it's bearing fruit," Mr Saliba explained.

A subsidiary company, Venezia Lines, wholly owned by Virtu, has been operating a similar service between several ports in Croatia and Venice for the past six years.

"Through agreements with low-cost airlines, tourists are flying to Venice, we pick them up from the airport and take them by boat to Croatia. We also take day trippers from Croatia to Venice," he said. "We have until now captured 48 per cent of the total market crossing between Venice and north Croatian ports," Mr Saliba added.

A new service was launched last year between Bari and Albania. This route is operated using the catamaran San Gwann which was previously on the Malta-Sicily run.

"The Bari-Albania route is extremely interesting with over 600,000 passengers and 270,000 vehicles crossing annually. There are two million Albanians working in Italy and these go home two to three times yearly, so providing an efficient and affordable service means there's plenty of room for growth there," he said.

Virtu Ferries recently acquired a fifth catamaran, the MV San Marco, which will be deployed in the Adriatic next summer.

The Virtu group employees 150 people and the management are all Maltese, Mr Saliba said.