Throughout 2017, the Malta Tourism Authority has increased its marketing efforts in Japan and South Korea in order to provide greater exposure for the Maltese Islands in these markets and attract more visitors to the islands.

At the beginning of October, the MTA office in Tokyo organised a joint seminar in conjunction with Turkish Airlines titled ‘Visit Malta with Turkish Airlines’. Key representatives from the travel industry in Japan attended, including travel agencies and journalists. During this seminar, the attendees were shown the beauty of the Maltese Island and all it has to offer, from the numerous World Heritage sites to the variety of events which take place throughout the year, as well as the pristine waters around Malta, Gozo and Comino.

During 2017 the MTA also hosted a number of TV crews in Malta to film episodes of highly popular television programmes. One of these programme named ‘Discovering the World, World Summit Report’ was aired on Japan’s TBS TV and had a viewership of almost 5.5 million people. A TV crew from TV Chosun in Korea were also hosted, and the Maltese Islands were featured 3 times on their programme, which is broadcast on national television.

The MTA also participated at a number of fairs in the region, with two taking place in Japan and another two taking place in Korea. The fairs in Japan were the JATA Tourism Expo and the LGBT Tokyo Rainbow pride, which were attended by over 190,000 people and 100,000 people respectively. The fairs which took place in Korea were Busan International Travel Fair and Korea World Travel Fair (KOTFA), which attracted over 97,000 attendees.

The MTA CEO, Paul Bugeja, said “Japan and South Korea are still relatively new markets for the Maltese Islands, in terms of incoming visitors. Increasing marketing activities to achieve greater exposure is therefore vital to attract potential visitors to our destination”. Mr. Bugeja continued by saying that while recently Malta has seen an increase in arrivals from both Japan and South Korea, this is just a fraction of what we of the market potential.  Mr. Bugeja concluded by thanking the MTA representatives in Japan, as well as the Head Office marketing support team, for their continuing efforts.