Initiatives to promote sports tourism

I refer to Kirill Micallef Stafrace's letter Promoting Sport Abroad (March 31). There appears to be some confusion here with regards to remits and responsibilities. One of the Malta Tourism Authority's major responsibilities involves the overseas marketing of the Maltese islands in an continuous effort to present Malta as an ideal destination to travel to. The sponsorship agreement with Sheffield United aims to do just that: promote Malta and Gozo in our main source market, the UK.

As for not wanting to supply the necessary figures, I would like to draw to the correspondent's attention a press conference held at the MTA's head office on March 27, which was widely reported in the press and media, wherein precise details were given of this agreement's value in terms of advertising, exposure and PR. The agreement with Sheffield United contemplates a fee of £350,000 per annum. The PR exposure value for Malta as a result of such sponsorship has been established by Havas Sport Insight - a wholly independent company that specializes in such evaluations - to be in excess of £1.4 million per season.

The promotion of local sport especially from social and health perspectives, laudable as it may be, is the remit of other entities and organisations and not of the MTA. This notwithstanding, the agreement with Sheffield United Football Club also contemplates various opportunities for the training and coaching of Maltese sportsmen and women. The first beneficiaries of this shall, and have in fact been, the MFA. Thanks to the extension of the agreement these opportunities will probably increase exponentially.

All this, on the other hand, is not sports tourism. In this respect the MTA together with the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth and Sport, are discussing ways and means whereby sports tourism may be further enhanced and supported. This would involve supporting sporting events and initiatives that bring a number of foreign participants to Malta and Gozo thereby generating more bed nights, especially in off peak periods. This is sports tourism for Malta. Sheffield United coming over to Malta for a training camp is also sports tourism. They were preceded by Ferencvaros, a team owned by the same owners of SUFC.

Apart from any misapprehensions noted in Dr Micallef Stafrace's letter regarding what is the overseas promotion of the Maltese islands and what is sports tourism, the MTA has long been aware of the potential that this segment may offer. To this end a specific sports segment within the MTA's marketing directorate was set up four years ago precisely to help exploit this potential.

The MTA together with all tourism stakeholders, will continue to do its utmost to forge ahead in these difficult times that the international tourism sector is facing, through various initiatives including the further promotion of sports tourism in Malta and Gozo.