The Malta Tourism Authority is embarking on a series of promotional initiatives in France with the aim of building on the positive results achieved during 2015. France, which ranks as the fourth largest tourism source market for Malta, last year generated 128,014 visitors, which correspond to 7.1% of total arrivals.

One of the main initiatives undertaken by MTA's Paris office in 2016 is the sponsorship of the popular TV programme C à vous, which airs weekdays on the national station France 5 from 7 to 8pm. This sponsorship will run during the months of March and April and consists of an eight-second TV spot at the beginning of the programme and another eight-second spot at the end. The daily estimated audience of this programme is around 4.2 million viewers.

Another initiative which will help to publicise Malta strongly in this important source market is a poster campaign taking place in the Paris metro during this month. A number of attractive Maltese scenes including Mdina, Valletta and Comino, are portrayed on the posters. This campaign is expected to reach around 60% of the Parisian adult population aged 15 and over, which is equivalent to around 4.7 million people. It has been estimated that the total views of these poster campaigns will be 81 million, with each individual viewing the posters an average of 17 times.

Besides these two promotional initiatives, an intensive online campaign will be held together with some of the main French specialised online tour operators selling Malta, including Go Voyages, Promovacances and Lastminute. MTA France is also taking advantage of the power of internet marketing with an increased presence on social media and online competitions, such as the one targeting prospective French divers on Facebook. The competition will require participants to follow a virtual diving itinerary around Malta and Gozo and answer five questions on diving around the Maltese Islands for a chance to win a diving holiday.

The MTA will also be having stands at a number of fairs, such as the general tourism fair Mahana in Lyon as well as specialised fairs in Paris like Le Salon de L'Office and Réunir International to boost the EFL and MICE segments respectively. In addition, MTA will also be participating at a number of workshops around France to aid Air Malta and Transavia operations from cities such as Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg and Toulouse.