A record 1.3 million tourists are being estimated to have visited Malta this year, reflecting a four percent increase in the number arrivals over 2007.

Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Mario de Marco said this morning that this number was 50,000 more tourists than last year.

Dr de Marco was speaking at the end of a tour of hotels during which he met staff and visited preparations for the New Year celebrations.

He expressed his appreciation those working in such an important sector saying that there were currently more than 10,000 full timers and more than 9,000 part timers employed in the tourism industry. There were in all 24,000 workers who were directly or indirectly involved in tourism, he said.

The Parliamentary Secretary said that Air Malta planned to utilise all its aircraft this summer making Malta more accessible to tourists. At the same time, the government would be advertising more in foreign countries but the best advert the country could have were satisfied tourists.

Malta, Dr de Marco said, needed to continuously improve its product so that tourists would convey their satisfaction to others.

He said that Easyjet would start selling tickets for its new Newcastle route next week.

The president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Kevin Decesare, said that due to the global financial situation Malta would also be going through a difficult time. So if the country wanted to weather the challenges ahead it needed to continuously improve its product.

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