Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco expressed cautious optimism for this year after a bad 2009, which saw an overall drop of almost 108,000 tourists over 2008.
"The first four months will not be easy but we are seeing a lot of interest in bookings and international conferences," he said during a press briefing yesterday which followed the release of official statistics for last year.
Overall, 2009 saw tourist arrivals drop by 8.4 per cent. The worst period was that between January and June when tourists declined by an average of 14 per cent.
The situation improved in the second half but only really picked up in December, which saw an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year, according to official figures.
"The drop in tourists was marginal in summer and, in fact, in December there was a substantial increase. This does not mean the crisis is over but that we are slowly coming out of it," Dr de Marco said.
Two factors that might have affected arrivals in the first half were the drops in people attending conferences and those choosing to take one holiday in summer instead of travelling twice a year - both symptoms of the international financial crisis.
Moreover, even though there was an 8.4 per cent decrease on 2008 arrivals, Dr de Marco pointed out that 2008 was the "best year ever for tourism" and not an average one.
The main drops were seen in the core markets such as Ireland (- 17 per cent), France (- 10 per cent) and the UK (- 8.6 per cent). But it was the drop in German tourists (-18 per cent) that affected Maltese tourism the most, he said.
The number of Italian tourists increased by 10 per cent and replaced Germany as Malta's second most important market.
The UK remained the most important market and contributed to 35 per cent of the tourists coming here. In fact, out of all destinations sought by UK travellers, Malta had suffered the least.
Looking ahead, the Malta Tourism Authority's CEO, Josef Formosa Gauci said the MTA was focusing on increasing airline accessibility and more focused advertising.
Air Malta would offer three more routes to Torino, Genoa and Naples while Easyjet would start routes to Malpensa and Fiumicino. Also, Ryanair might also offer another two routes, he said.
Marketing and advertising would focus more on changing trends in a market where people booked their trips at the last minute while television adverts were planned on Italian, German and French stations.
The website www.visitmalta.com would also be revamped and an online travel portal in German would be launched. Plus, MTA would launch the first destination site designed exclusively for iPhone and iPod users, Mr Formosa Gauci said.