The Malta Tourism Authority is pleased to announce that two Italian journalists who were invited in 2016 to visit the Maltese Islands on press trips, have won prizes in relation to their media coverage at the ADUTEI (Associazione Delegati Ufficiali del Turismo Estero in Italia) awards, which took place recently at the splendid setting of the Palazo Reale in Milan.

ADUTEI is the association of tourist boards in Italy, of which the MTA is a member. The ADUTEI awards recognise the best tourism-related articles on various media, published the previous year, in this case 2016.

The two journalists that were invited on MTA press trips and won awards were Irene Colzi and Marco Berchi.

Colzi is a fashion blogger, who runs the blog www.irenescloset.com to over 230,000 followers on Instagram. Besides these two media sources, Colzi also had some television appearances on Detto Fatto on Rai 2. Colzi won first prize in the Blog category of the awards, with her entry titled Cosa vedere a Malta: vi racconto il mio viaggio (What to see in Malta: an overview of my trip). This blog focused on the destination as a whole as well as some of the more trendy and quirky aspects of the islands. This press trip allowed Colzi to explore the islands while being at the centre of a photo-shoot which was organised in partnership with locals, such as Diandra Mattei (make-up artist), Malcolm Gauci (stylist), Charles and Ron (clothing) and Gary Bugeja (photographer).

Berchi was awarded second place in the newspaper category with his article titled Malta: che luce sull'isola dei fuochi artificiali (Malta: bright lights on the island of fireworks), which was published in La Repubblica. During the journalist's stay in Malta, he managed to accurately portray the Maltese culture, represented through the Maltese feast and fireworks.