Tourism industry resilient enough to weather storm - de Marco

The government is convinced that Malta’s tourism industry is resilient enough to weather the storm looming internationally, Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said today.

Speaking during a visit to the World Aviation Group in Luqa, Dr de Marco said this was why the government had increased MTA’s budget for 2009 by €3.5 million – effectively doubling it over a period of 10 years.

He referred to the three-pronged strategy adopted by the government and the Matla Tourism Authority to address the situation - working on increasing accessibility to the islands; increasing marketing, including new television campaigns not just in the UK, but also in Germany, France and Italy; and investing in the tourism product.

The World Aviation Group is a Maltese-Australian Group with 50 percent of the equity held by Air Malta and the other 50 percent owned by Cassar Aviation Services Pty Ltd of Sydney. Its main focus is to deliver services principally to the aviation, travel and tourism industry.