Tourist arrivals this year will surpass the 1.5 million mark, an increase of nearly 9 per cent over last year, Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella said this morning.

Addressing a press conference on the Budget 2014, Mr Vella said the tourism sector was seeing an increase in its budget for next year with the aim of achieving even better results. He said he was particularly pleased that budgets had increased without resorting to austerity measures or tax increases for the industry.

While noting that the cruise liner industry had witnessed a decrease down to 480,000 from the 600,000 last year, the results of discussions with the industry recovered some of the losses. Arrivals are estimated to increase to 520,000 next year.

The minister said efforts were under way to improve tourism performance in the shoulder months, and expressed satisfaction that numbers for October had surpassed the results for August last year.

He said seat capacity for this winter had increased by nearly nine per cent over that of last winter.

Asked whether the citizenship sale scheme would impinge on Malta's reputation as a tourist destination, Mr Vella said he believed this would not happen.

Replying to a question on Air Malta, Mr Vella said the government was not interfering with decisions being taken by the management team, although he said he was disappointed that the management team had only been given a three year term to carry out a five year plan.