The award was collected by MTA manager Ms Naomi Attard during the China Outbound Tourism workshop held at the International Travel Fair in Berlin last month.

Professor Wolfgang Georg Arlt, who introduced the award winners, pointed out that Malta was the first country to obtain Approved Destination Status (ADS) and highly commended the efforts made by the MTA.

The ADS agreement facilitates travel for Chinese tourists to European Union member states.

The European Chinese Tourists Welcoming Awards were set up by the China Outbound Tourism Research Project together with Travel and Trade in Europe magazine of Cologne.

The award will be presented yearly to European organisations and companies with outstanding performances in marketing and involvement in the Chinese market.

Travel and Trade in Europe, which has been on the newsstands for the past two years, has a circulation of 40,000. The magazine aims to strengthen exchange and cooperation between Chinese and European travel businesses.

Accepting the award, Ms Attard explained that the MTA recognised the tourism potential of China and invested in the market in its early days.

“Apart from opening a Beijing office, which employs a full-timer, the MTA produced promotional material in Chinese, organised and hosted press trips as well as promotional evenings and hosts a Chinese language version of its website visitmalta.com,” she said.

Ms Attard explained that the relatively small Chinese market to Malta has doubled in recent years, and the MTA envisages huge potential for Malta in the language market, together with history and culture.

“The Authority intends to pursue its promotional efforts in China, and is aiming to attract over 10,000 Chinese tourists to Malta by the year 2010,” she added.

The Chinese market is the fastest growing outbound tourism market, with over 16 million Chinese people crossing the border in 2002.