Malta is moving towards becoming an events-oriented tourism destination, with international events organised year-round by the Tourism and Culture Ministry and agencies that form part of the ministry, as well as through supporting events organised by the private sector.
“Our product is in continuous upgrading mode,” Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech told a conference organised by the Tourism Studies Association Board of the University of Malta, and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.
He referred to the World Tourism Forum’s first Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2007 which ranked Malta in 26th place from 124 countries surveyed.
“We ranked extremely well in prioritisation of travel and tourism, fifth place; in ICT infrastructure, 11th place; tourism infrastructure, 12th place and national tourism perception, 16th place. But our competitive advantage is eroded due to our price competitiveness, which puts us in 109th place and ground transport infrastructure in 60th place.”
He added that he did not necessarily concur with all the results but still thought that the report offered a good yardstick. The report places Switzerland in first place for, among others, being an extremely safe country and because its cultural resources are among the richest in the world with the report stating that “Switzerland is home to six world heritage sites, a significant number for such a small country.”
The International Living magazine placed Malta in second place as the ideal country where to retire. And among the reasons for putting Malta in second place was the fact that Malta was secure. Malta with a land mass of only 316 square kilometres was home to nine world heritage sites – the city of Valletta, seven Megalithic temples and Hal Saflieni. Switzerland for its part has an area of nearly 40,000 square kilometres.
Dr Zammit Dimech said that up to some years ago, Malta’s tourism industry was dependent on sea, sun and sand. “With more countries living off this industry, we are doing our best to diversify our tourism industry through the identification of niche markets and the promotion of these niches in foreign countries,” he said.
Malta’s diversification process took into account the upgrading of the infrastructure, embellishment projects, and restoration, rehabilitation and environmental projects.
“Concurrently we have embarked on projects aimed at providing more sandy beaches in Malta and Gozo. Two of these projects: the St George’s Bay project in St Julian’s and the perched beach project in Bugibba were completed with an investment of over Lm1 million (more than e2,330,000). Further projects are earmarked for other beaches in Malta and Gozo.”
Nowadays promoting a country as a tourist destination is no longer a question of merely reaching agreement with tour operators. More travellers are planning their own holiday through the internet. The recent launch of the VisitMalta portal, he said, would contribute towards making Malta more competitive.
The changeover to the euro next January would also help competitiveness since a high percentage of tourists to Malta come from European Union countries that adopted the euro as their currency.