Malta voted third best diving destination
Malta has been voted the third best diving destination in the world by some 35,000 readers of Diver Magazine, a North American publication, preceded only by Egypt and the Maldives.
The Malta Tourism Authority said the waters around Malta and Gozo were blessed with rocky reefs, caves, plentiful marine life and the wrecks of ships from Malta's rich maritime history.
"With such a variety of dives concentrated around the tiny island nation it is little wonder that the islands have been honoured with the award," it said.
The Professional Diving Schools Association reacted positively to the news and congratulated its member schools, which, it said, worked hard at providing a great service and value for money to all the divers that visited the small Maltese islands.
The association's Simone Brinch-Iversen noted that the accolade was no surprise as comments left by clients were always positive. This was evidenced by the fact that over 40 per cent of business consisted of repeat visits.
She pointed out that Malta competed with destinations that had a much larger budget for infrastructure and marketing.
Over the past three years, a good number of centres affiliated to the association upgraded their facilities in order to come in line with what modern divers expected as a standard.
"This must now be taken one step further and, with the help of MTA, we need to work on improving our dive sites and providing protection to our marine conservation areas," Ms Brinch-Iversen said.
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r ferriggi
Mar 5th 2009, 09:30
TO MR BUHAGIAR
i guess that your version is correct. i hav not been diving that long!!
but i dove in sicily on some Italian islands where they had parts of them ( marine park, no fishing allowed ) and believe me, it was fantastic. plenty or larger fish such as barracudas in the thousands and grouper families.
the sea was also clearer! i have to admit, the diving was much better than locally. this is mostly why i was (pleasantly) surprised with the survey mentioned.
MICHAEL SOUTHGATE
Mar 5th 2009, 08:27
... FOR ONE SECOND I THOUGHT THAT I READ "DRIVING" ...
Francis Buhagiar
Mar 4th 2009, 12:44
Mr. R. Ferrigi, I have been diving all year round for these last 40 years and this is not the first time that our sea has been void of fish. I remember during the late 70’s early 80’s our sea was worse than it is today. At those times even the sea urchins have disappeared. The lack of fish is not a matter of the Maltese waters but the whole Mediterranean sea. This problem is caused by global warming and I hope that it will not be the Maltese people who pay for this problem as you are suggesting.
r ferriggi
Mar 4th 2009, 10:01
I am an avid diver and i dive all year round. the 'news' that malta has placed so well is fantastic.
the only BIG problem that there is ( and i know what i am saying) is that THE MALTESE WATERS ARE PRACTICALLY VOID OF FISHES. everyone,,,,including tourists,,,, note this. even in non- frequented sites. i am perplexed that this has not affected the survey.
again, it is up to the authorities to create non fishing zones. what are we waiting for??
R. Azzopardi
Mar 4th 2009, 09:49
Perhaps the MTA could start by installing signs at popular dive sites describing the site, indicating compass bearings, depth and all a diver needs to know. These have already been installed in Gozo and are of great help. The tables and benches installed at Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo to assist divers to kit-up are very welcome indeed. A few more of these in other dive sites would be very welcome too. Diving kit is very heavy. Any asistance, no matter how small is greatly appreciated.
Chris Finch
Mar 4th 2009, 09:48
DIVER magazine is a UK publication not a north American one. The award was voted on predominantly by UK divers which is our core diving market.
This is a great award for the Islands and should be a basis for improving the diving product even further as SImone said, by having clean dive sites, protected marine reserves and improved facilities for visiting tourists like toilets at Cirkewwa, which is the most popular site.