Conference and incentive travel on the increase
Just over a third of tourist arrivals last year represented sectors other than ‘sun’ tourism and included culture and heritage, sports, business and English language tourists, Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said.
Speaking at the launch of the DMC quality seal, Dr de Marco said the business segment, of which conference and incentive travel (CIT) was the main component, accounted for 89,811 tourist arrivals with CIT generating 61,200 arrivals. Conference and business travellers to Malta spent an average of €800 per trip (€165.69 per night), nearly three times more than the leisure traveller.
This translated into a category of nearly 90,000 tourists with a spending power of over a quarter of a million leisure travellers, he said.
This segment was also the major factor behind the construction of five star hotels, which increased threefold to the present 15 in the past 10 years, providing 7,139 bed-places.
Dr de Marco said that in the first quarter of this year, 60,000 tourists visited Malta for business, an increase of 22.4 per cent on the same period last year. MHRA generated information indicated that CIT room nights increased by 66 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.
And even though results were not available for April to September this year, hotels reported that CIT business would either increase or remain at the same levels of 2008.
He said that four projects for new five star hotels and one for an extension and five projects for four star hotels and 12 for extensions were scheduled to open from 2009.
Moreover, the Smart City project in the south of Malta would increase business travel, so much so that two new development for five star hotels catering for 400 beds and two new developments for four star hotels, catering for 180 beds, were part of the project.
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a sciberras
Sep 3rd 2008, 15:23
Well said.
However, I do not agree that English language students should be outright classified under the third of non sun tourists. Let's face it we are mostly attracting under 16s who are more here for the sun and fun element rather than the older business students, who might be really here for the learning element. We need to attract more of the latter, who have more spending power - rather than sharing a softdrink between 3 - and are much less of a nuisance to the locals and the environment, no offence meant to anyone.