Secretariat urges stakeholders to keep momentum after record year

The hard work and collaboration by the stakeholders which enabled Malta to reach new records in tourism last year, needed to be kept up this year, the Secretariat for Tourism said.

It was commenting following publication of official figures confirming that Malta last year welcomed 1.33 million tourists who spent €1.1 billion and spent 11 million nights in Malta, all records for the country. The previous record year was 2008.

The figures showed that tourism last year grew by 13% in Malta compared to an average growth rate of 3% in European destinations.

The ministry observed that thanks to the government's strategy, three of the last four years were records for tourism.

The biggest increases in arrivals were from Italy, Spain and the Scandinavian countries.

Significant progress was made in reducing seasonality, to the extent that arrivals in October - a shoulder month - were last year higher than the peak month of July, in 2009.

The secretariat noted the focus made last year on improving accessibility to Malta and sharpening tourism promotion, while further investment was made in the tourism product.

It said that this hard work and collaboration now had to be carried over to this year so that challenges which always cropped up would be overcome.

The Malta Tourism Authority in a stateent also welcomed the official confirmation of the record figures.