Turkey and Malta have benefitted from a direct air link operated by Air Malta between Istanbul and Malta International Airport for a long number of years, but the nature of that connection related to a time when people travelled to a destination rather infrequently and for a very limited number of reasons. 

As travel and tourism patterns have changed, so does connectivity need to evolve and adapt to be able to efficiently service such changed travel trends and patterns.  The current schedule operated by Turkish Airlines is a very clear reflection of this, he said.

The volume and frequency of capacity being floated on the Istanbul-Malta route provides a very clear indication of two important factors, namely, the emergence of Turkey as an important tourism source market and destination and the growing popularity of Malta as a main tourist destination.  It also presents Turkey as a major travel hub.

Malta is aware about the opportunities arising from such links between the two countries and we are taking a number of steps to capitalize on the direct and indirect opportunities which have arisen, the minister said. 

From the marketing perspective, over the past months we have increased our activity in the Turkish market through a number of measures including the development of a Turkish version of our tourism portal, extensive advertising in Turkish print, online and social media during the recent months and support to Maltese companies attending the EMITT tourism fair in Turkey.

Plans for the upcoming months that are being established in cooperation with Turkish Airlines, include educational visits for new Turkish tour operators and third country tourism source markets that can reach Malta by connecting through Istanbul airport. The markets being targeted include China, Japan, the Middle East, the USA and former Soviet States like Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan together with other areas of Russia which are considered distant from Moscow.