Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said this afternoon that Malta is resilient enough to face the challenging times ahead in the tourism sector.

He was speaking after the NSO released figures showing that Malta achieved a record of tourist arrivals last year, but arrivals dropped between September and December.

He said that last year's figures had to be seen in the context of World Tourism Organisation projections of growth of only 2%. Malta's growth was 3.8%.

He said the challenges ahead lay in the fact that many airlines were consolidating or reducing their routes and Malta's core markets were in recession. The UNWTO's projection was for negative growth this year.

The authorities in Malta, however, were working to overcome the hurdles ahead by focusing on better accessibility, marketing, and product.

It was a mark of confidence, he said, that airlines such as Ryanair had announced new services between Malta and Trapani, Edinburgh and Bristol and EasyJet were launching a service to Newcastle.

SAS would operate a service between Malta and Stockholm and Clickair would operate a Valencia route. Air Malta would,for the first time, use all its 12 aircraft for Malta routes in the summer, with new services to Verona, Stuttgart and Paris Charles de Gaulle. There would be increased frequency to Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Munich, Frankfurt, Malpensa, Zurich, Moscow, Istanbul and Sofia.

Dr de Marco said the MTA was increasing its advertising on core markets by an average of 50%, and some of the funds are being retained for the late booking period in view of the current uncertain economic climate for many potential tourists. New adverts have also been produced (see video).

Malta, he said, was still recognised as a value for money destination, something which needed to be preserved. Efforts to further improve the tourism product would continue, as evidenced by the recent launch of a €10m fund for sustainable tourism projects.