Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco this morning urged the tourism sector to turn the growing trend of individual travel by tourists into an opportunity to further exploit Malta's attractions.

He told a business breakfast organised by Malta Business Weekly that the fact that tourists were shifting from package holidays to individual travel meant that Malta had more tourists who wanted to venture out to explore the country.

Malta, he said, needed to exploit this trend by better promoting the attractions of its village cores.

Tourism operators, the MTA and the government needed to understand the changing trends and cater for them, even in little things which were actually quite important.

"An example is road signage, he said. Try getting from St Julians to Ghaxaq."

Independent tourists wanted to explore the island, but getting around was not always easy, he said.

Restaurants, he said, needed to understand that the typical tourist was no longer British, but could could equally be continental.

Malta, he said, needed to be sold as a dynamic destination. The sun and the sea needed to be increasingly supplemented with the village cores as well as the cultural and historical attractions. The villages, he said, had a lot to offer, and he saw an opportunity in turning old palazzos, such as in Siggiewi and Zebbug, into boutique hotels. More could be done to tap the potential of rural tourism. Visiting Grand Harbour itself could become an experience, not unlike what tourists enjoyed at Lago di Como.

Dr de Marco also urged hotels to better explooit the new trends in marketing, including websites and social networking sites.