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.